Sonepar is publicly releasing its worldwide Code of Conduct, in keeping with current practice within the Group.

Marie-Christine Coisne-Roquette, Chairman, said: “Integrity has always been a key value and a compelling behavior at Sonepar. Today, in a world where compliance becomes increasingly essential, the Group is launching a substantial pro compliance and anti-corruption program, both to impress upon everyone the importance of combatting those evils and to help everyone avoid, detect and stop any non-compliant action.”

Philippe Delpech, CEO, added: “Compliance is a challenge for everyone at Sonepar, every day and in everything we do. To help everybody understand Sonepar’s expectations, we are issuing our Code of Conduct, which supplements all existing policies and instructions applicable in the Group. We want all our stakeholders—associates, customers, suppliers and third parties—to know and understand Sonepar’s compliance objectives and focus. Our mission is to communicate continuously, making sure our associates feel comfortable about reporting any event they believe is not in line with our Code of Conduct.”

Sonepar encourages every natural person, whether employed by a Group company or not, to report, selflessly and in good faith, any serious and obvious breach of law or regulation, or any threat or severe harm to the business integrity, such as acts of corruption or influence peddling, and any behavior or situation that violates the Group’s code of conduct, which the individual personally gained knowledge of.

Sonepar is therefore launching its Sonepar Whistleblower Procedure ensuring the whistleblower’s identity, the information provided and the identity of the person(s) involved in the reported facts remain confidential. The procedure, inclusive of a secured channel, makes it possible to communicate documents in support of the alert. The channel is outsourced, whereas assessment and monitoring of the alert are not.

Click here to access the whistleblowing tool: www.sonepar.com/alert