Our Business

As a leading manufacturer and distributor of fertilisers to Agriculture and Amenity sectors throughout Great Britain, we produce a comprehensive range of NPK, prescription blends, straights and micro-nutrient products. In addition to commodity Fertilisers, the company is committed to developing innovative and technologically enhanced crop nutrition products and services with the objective of improving crop yields, crop quality and farmer returns. Origin Soil Nutrition and PB Kent are trading names of Origin UK Operations Limited, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Origin Enterprises PLC.

Our Ethical Standards

Origin UK Operations Limited (trading as Origin Soil Nutrition and PB Kent) is committed to conducting itself with the highest ethical and legal standards at all times. Origin is committed to ensuring that it is compliant with the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (“MSA”) and will not accept non-compliance with the MSA within its own operations or those of partners or suppliers. We are aware that human traffickers and illegal/unlicensed gang-masters target a range of industries including those involved in the agricultural sector. It remains important that we maintain our vigilance and continually improve our controls and procedures.

Continuous Improvement

We recognise that risk assessment, management oversight and continuous improvement are important, and we closely monitor UK government guidance, updates and requirements – and seeking advisor input as appropriate. Origin continues to review and improve upon its actions and due diligence measures, including but not limited to the following:

• Improving upon our current internal ‘labour supplier/agency risk checks’ to ensure that any permanent or seasonal employees (within our circa 240 workforce, based at various sites in the UK, including our production facilities) are sourced in compliance with UK law and in a way that helps minimise Modern Slavery risk. This is done with the understanding that human traffickers and gang masters operate in the UK, disguising themselves as labour providers / labour agencies. In 2026 we will be increasing our vetting of agencies used for the supply of temporary labour, with the introduction of a ‘due diligence checklist’ which includes (but is not limited to) the following checks: bank details verification, Companies House checks, website checks, reference checks where available and a telephone supplier screening / verbal confirmation of services provided.
• Enhancements to our IT systems to improve the recording, monitoring, and oversight of supplier compliance with our Modern Slavery Act obligations.
• The majority of product we source already comes from suppliers who have agreed to our principles and requirements in respect of prevention of modern slavery, however we continue to focus on direct engagement with those who have yet to provide this confirmation.

Other Existing Procedures

As well as the above measures, we will also continue to take the following steps to ensure that we further combat slavery and human trafficking:

• Continue to monitor and review our MSA processes, ensuring that we are also keeping up to date with proposed government amendments to legislation, including sourcing external legal advice where appropriate to do so.
• Operation of MSA Steering group comprised of Senior HR, Senior Operations Leader and a Senior Finance representative to discuss, implement and develop MSA controls and procedures and review progress.
• Commit to promptly answer questions posed by our customers in respect of the MSA who wish to know more about our operations and / or our supply chain.
• Provide an opportunity for all employees to identify risks anonymously through a whistleblowing process, which is detailed on the company intranet, notice boards and communicated in our modern slavery policy.
• Communicating to all employees our Conduct Charter, which is complementary to our existing Code of Conduct for employees and recurrent training and guidance to help identify and report human rights abuses/slavery. Collectively these policies and guides reiterate our commitments to our own people, the communities in which we work and to the environment as well as making clear our commitment to human rights abuses/slavery prevention.
• Requiring Origin suppliers to acknowledge, accept and adhere to the Supplier Code of Conduct, which covers a number of areas consistent with the general context of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, but with specific focus on: people & labour; business ethics & compliance; and health, safety and the environment.
• Annual communication to all employees reiterating the need for vigilance with respect to modern slavery, alongside sharing links to current guidance and policy. Links to mandatory Modern Slavery e- learning training (to be completed for all new starters and regular re-completion for existing employees) are also shared as part of the annual communication and training completion levels are closely monitored, with reminders and stepped escalation where an individual has not completed the training within the designated period.

Our Supply Chain

We are a manufacturer and distributor and our supply chain is global in its reach. We source from manufacturers directly or through intermediaries many of whom are large multinational organisations. However, we remain vigilant to all risks, particularly in small-scale suppliers, in whose sector there may sometimes be a higher risk of unlicensed, seasonal manual labour.

Origin UK Operations Limited is committed to ensuring our supply chain is free from human rights abuses and modern slavery. We actively welcome comments and suggestions from anyone within our supply chain about how we can improve our operations or further reduce risks in our supply chain. If you have any questions regarding this matter, please contact us by emailing us on:

MSA@originukoperations.co.uk