Good News and Bad News for Primark … and the Garfield Weston Foundation?
Howard Lake | 15 January 2009 | Blogs
Some time ago there was widespread criticism for Primark (and Asda and Tesco), after the retailers were accused of using suppliers who employed poorly paid workers in Bangladesh. War on Want claimed that workers earned as little as 7p an hour for working up to 80-hours a week.
Whilst the latest figures from Primark show that business is booming, the BBC has just reported that one of Primark’s suppliers (in England), was employing staff who worked up to 12 hours a day for £3.50 an hour, well below the minimum wage.
The Garfield Weston Foundation is a major grant-making trust, and derives a substantial proportion of its income from its interests in Wittington Investments Limited, which is Associated British Foods plc’s ultimate holding company. ABF owns Primark, amongst other well known brands. The Foundation therefore owns a fair sized chunk of Primark. Does this matter? How far should fundraisers go in researching the ethics of (potential) supporters? If Primark, Asda and Tesco (and other potential supporters) sell clothes, are they bound to be drawn into scandals such as this from time to time? How closely should fundraisers and researchers examine the investments of major donors?
Finbar Cullen
ResearchPlus
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.