Mitre Sports

OVERALL
Owned	UK
Rating

Sporting goods

Established in England in 1817, Mitre is the world's oldest manufacturer of footballs. Bought by Pentland in 1995.

Company Ownership


Mitre Sports International	UK	website	email
Pentland Group plc owns 100% of Mitre Sports International	UK	website	email
Clothing Bought Speedo and eight other major sporting goods brands in the 1990's. Owned by Stephen Rubin and family.

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Company Assessment

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INFORMATION

Mitre Sports International

Child labour

In 2008 the International Labor Rights Forum released a report about major instances of child labor in the soccer ball industry in India. Around the same time HBO in America aired a news story entitled "Childhood Lost" on their show "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel". The report exposed the horrid conditions taking place in India with the production of these balls through child labor. Some of the footage showed children stitching soccer balls for Mitre for 5 cents per hour. Mitre sued HBO for defamation, claiming the "show is defamatory because the kids were sewing balls for other companies as well".
[Source 2008][More on Workers Rights]

Pentland Group plc

Ethical Trading Initiative member

The Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) is an alliance of companies, trade unions and NGOs. They work in partnership to improve the lives of workers across the globe who make or grow consumer goods - everything from tea to T-shirts, from flowers to footballs. This company is a full member.
[Source 2018][More on Workers Rights]

Child labour scorecard

This website by German NGO Earth Link rates companies on their corporate policies against child labour, production monitoring and accusations of child labour. This company received at least one green mark, and no red marks, indicating good performance in one or more of these areas.
[Source 2013][More on Human Rights]

Transparency Pledge

The Apparel and Footwear Supply Chain Transparency Pledge (Transparency Pledge) helps demonstrate apparel and footwear companies' commitment towards greater transparency in their manufacturing supply chain. Transparency of a company's manufacturing supply chain better enables a company to collaborate with civil society in identifying, assessing, and avoiding actual or potential adverse human rights impacts. This is a critical step that strengthens a company's human rights due diligence. This company is fully aligned with the Transparency Pledge, thereby committing to regularly publish on its website a list naming all sites that manufacture its products.
[Source 2017][More on Sustainability Reporting]

'D' rating at rankabrand.org

Rank a Brand searches the websites of brands for the answers to carefully targeted questions. From this they calculate sustainability scores based on the themes of environment, climate, labor issues, and transparency. Brands owned by this company received a 'D'.
[Source 2017][More on Sustainability Reporting]

Sweatshops in China

This 2007 investigative report by China Labour Watch reveals poor work conditions for Chinese workers making products for this company, such as workers being required to work nine hours per day as regular hours in addition to five to six hours of mandatory overtime during peak season which accumulates to 14 work hours per day, about 420 hours per month. [Listed under information due to age of report]
[Source 2007][More on Workers Rights]

Workers rights

Playfair 2012, a coalition of trade unions and campaigning organisations, says this company is not doing enough to: ensure all workers are paid a living wage; allow workers to bargain collectively; eliminate short term contracts; and build long-term relationships with supplier factories. [Listed under Information due to age of report]
[Source 2012][More on Workers Rights]

CSR claims

This company has responsibility claims on its website in the areas of environment, ethical trade, supporting local communities, and reducing the environmental impacts of the materials and processes used to make their products.
[Source 2015][More on Sustainability Reporting]

ACT participant

This company is a participant in the Action, Collaboration, Transformation (ACT) initiative, an initiative between international brands and retailers, manufacturers, and trade unions to address the issue of living wages in the textile and garment supply chain.
[Source 2018][More on Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives]

Sustainable Apparel Coalition member

This company is a founding member of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, a multi-stakeholder initiative launched in March 2011 by a group of global apparel and footwear companies and non-profit organizations (representing nearly one third of the global market share for apparel and footwear). The Coalition's goals are to reduce the apparel industry's environmental and social impact, and to develop a universal index to measure environmental and social performance of apparel products.
[Source 2018][More on Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives]

Better Work Partner

This company is a partner of Better Work, an initiative of the UN's International Labour Organization and the International Finance Corporation which brings diverse groups together - governments, global brands, factory owners, and unions and workers - to improve working conditions in the garment industry and make the sector more competitive.
[Source 2016][More on Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives]

Leather Working Group member

This company is a member of the Leather Working Group, a multi-stakeholder group who's objective is to develop and maintain a protocol that assesses the compliance and environmental performance of tanners and promotes sustainable and appropriate environmental business practices within the leather industry.
[Source 2019][More on Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives]

Modern Slavery statement

California, the UK and Australia have all enacted legislation requiring companies operating within their borders to disclose their efforts to eradicate modern slavery from their operations and supply chains. Follow the link to see this company's disclosure statement.
[Source 2017][More on Human Rights]