Promoting People
The standards we hold for the people who work for us, and for those who work across our supply chains.
Merchant trade is a people business conducted at distance. The quality of a firm's judgement, its relationships and its execution rests almost entirely on the people making decisions — often alone, often quickly, and frequently far from a head office.
Our People
We hire for judgement and commercial sense, and we give people responsibility earlier than a larger institution would. That carries an obligation: people given responsibility early must be supported, supervised and developed properly.
Development
Expertise in physical trade is built through exposure rather than instruction — to origins, counterparties, freight, financing, and the specific ways a trade can fail. We structure work so that people gain that exposure across the whole of a merchant's activity rather than within a single function.
Conduct and Respect
We expect people to be treated with respect at every level of the business and in every interaction with a counterparty, supplier or agent. Discrimination and harassment are not tolerated. We recruit and promote on capability.
Safety
We do not operate industrial facilities, but our activity brings people into ports, warehouses and vessels where risk is real. We expect the operators we work with to maintain proper standards of workplace safety, and we take those standards into account when selecting them.
Labour Standards in Our Supply Chains
We expect suppliers to uphold fundamental labour standards — freely chosen employment, safe working conditions, and the prohibition of forced and child labour. We regard these as conditions of supply, not preferences.