Unit 20: Investigating CSR
Assignment 3 of 3: Reviewing the CSR record of a
private sector business.
,Purpose and aims of this assignment.
Throughout this assignment I will be analysing and conducting an in-depth research on the privately
owned retailer Primark to understand their ethical behaviors and practices and provide a critically
analysed review on their current CSR record.
Primark background information
Primark is a clothing retailer that offers an array of products including accessories and footwear which
originally started within Dublin, Republic of Ireland in 1969. The founding family was the Weston family
who began to expand into countries mostly within Europe and eventually moved to the USA and now
own and operate 373 stores. They function under the ‘fast fashion’ business model where they have low
operating costs and output highly popular clothing at a rapid rate, usually at a lower price compared to
other retailers1.
Part 1 – CSR in action at a major private sector business
CSR report/social audits
A CSR report, also known as a sustainability report, is an annual audit conducted by the business with
the intention of releasing their ethics, responsibility, actions that they have taken and what the results
of these were2. A social audit refers to the code of conduct that regard a company’s social responsibility
and what their impact on society is whether it be good or bad 3.
Stakeholders
Internal
An internal stakeholder is an individual who is directly involved with the internal affairs of a business
whether it be the day-to-day operations, management, finance, or overall ownership of the business
and are affected by the organisations actions4.
One example of an internal stakeholder is the employees working for the business whether they are
frontline staff or are managers of a certain store. Since the company provides a wage for them to help in
the selling and success of their business, they are considered to be internal.
Another internal stakeholder includes the owners/shareholders of the business. Owners of the business
are found within almost every company and are internal since they are the ones who run and manage
the decisions made for the company whereas shareholders are individuals/groups who hold a share of a
company. Public companies offer this position to the public whereas a privately owned business will
distribute the shares to those within the business.
1
https://www.statista.com/topics/4684/primark/#:~:text=Primark%20is%20a%20leading%20retailer,it%20expanded%20into%20other
%20countries.&text=Primark%20is%20owned%20by%20the,Associated%20British%20Foods%20(ABF)
2
https://youmatter.world/en/definition/definitions-csr-report-important-examples/
3
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-audit.asp
4
https://www.stakeholdermap.com/internal-stakeholders.html
1
, External
On the other hand, an external stakeholder are individuals/groups who are not directly involved with
the managing of the company but instead still offer an interest within the firm. However, just because
they are not directly involved within the business does not mean that they are not affected by them as
any external stakeholder will, in some way, be impacted by the company’s involvement 5.
One example of an external stakeholders are the customers of a company since they are the people who
have an interest in the business’s products or its overall success. Customers can also include employees
or another internal stakeholder of a company since they too are interested and drawn to the
products/services provided. Another example of an external stakeholder is the government of a country
that a business is operating within.
Governments are considered to be an external stakeholder since they do not have direct control over a
business’s activities, but they do have more influence than a regular external stakeholder since they are
able to implement policies/laws that might push a company in a certain direction without direct action.
Primark’s ethical practices
In April 2013, the Rana Plaza event occurred when a factory complex within Bangladesh, that was
producing clothes for Primark, collapsed resulting in 1,000 deaths and many more injured 6. Following on
from this, Primark provided aid/compensation to the families involved and signed a new contract called
the ‘Bangladesh Accord’ which is a rework of their old contract. Within this new policy, Primark has
stated that this is a ‘commitment’ to improving the working conditions in Bangladesh’s garment industry
has to prevent another event like this to happen again 7.
Within their 2019 sustainability performance report, Primark has stated that they are continuing on
their collaborations with the Sustainability Apparel Coalition (SAC) 8 which is an organisation that
specializes in improving the ethical standards of the textile industry and will partner with firms, such as
Primark, in order to promote this practice 9. Within these standards Primark has been seen utilising
paper bags since 2002 rather than plastic alternatives, which many high street shops still use, alongside
their new initiatives to help reduce waste and packaging 10.
Another one of Primark’s ethical practices is their membership of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI). The
ETI is an alliance of companies, trade unions and NGO’s (non-government organisations) with the
ambition to improve workers’ rights across the globe 11. On Primark’s main website, a section dedicated
to their ethical practices contains a selection of reports and statements that summarises company
standards which mentions how Primark has been a member of the ETI since 2006 and have signed up to
their Principles of Implementation that ‘set out how member companies should approach ethical
5
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/stakeholder.asp#:~:text=External%20stakeholders%20are%20those%20who,are%20all%20considered
%20external%20stakeholders
6
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/business-24646264
7
https://www.primark.com/en/primark-cares/newsroom/primark-signs-new-bangladesh-accord-on-fire-and-building-safety/a/c4c7a65a-f72a-4020-
b9ca-1b00a286fec8
8
https://primark.a.bigcontent.io/v1/static/Primark_Environmental-Sustainability-Performance-Report_2019
9
https://apparelcoalition.org/
10
https://goodonyou.eco/how-ethical-is-primark/
11
https://www.ethicaltrade.org/about-eti
2
