Compliance and Governance

Compliance has always been part of our philosophy as an honorable businessman at Poly-clip - for us as a family business, it is a matter of course and part of our responsible corporate governance.

However, for a company the size of Poly-clip with less than 500 employees, it is not a matter of course to have established a compliance management system in accordance with the relevant compliance standards such as ISO 37301 or relevant laws. Poly-clip is therefore proud to have transferred the individual compliance measures in place since January 1, 2021 into a systematic compliance management system. This includes a clear assignment of responsibilities, tasks and powers to the Chief Compliance Officer and a matrix organization that handles other compliance issues. Poly-clip's compliance management system is reviewed on an ongoing basis and improved where necessary.

The most important principles of clean conduct are set out in our Code of Conduct, which was reissued at the beginning of 2023 and now takes the latest findings and requirements into account in greater depth.

In total, Poly-clip's compliance requirements primarily comprise the following guidelines and documents:

1. Code of Conduct [internal and external document]

2. Organizational Instruction Compliance of the Poly-clip Group [internal document]

3. Anti-corruption guideline [internal document]

4. For the following seven decentralized compliance risk areas

• Product compliance,
• IT compliance,
• Insurance, tax compliance and money laundering,
• Data protection,
• Labor law,
• Occupational Safety,
• and Export Control,

which Poly-clip has identified and defined in the Compliance organizational directive, the necessary information sheets, manuals and procedural instructions, etc. also exist for each area.

Why is compliance as part of governance so important and therefore a competitive advantage when working with Poly-clip compared to companies that do not sufficiently enforce compliance? Compliance behavior includes, for example, delivery reliability, the clean awarding of supplier contracts, a hazard-free working environment and safe products for employees and customers. Furthermore, the goal of environmental specifications and energy optimization is jointly promoted by suppliers and all other business partners. Failure to comply with the rules in these areas can result in missing deliveries, deliveries only with bribes, defective and/or unsafe products, environmental pollution, etc. This is detrimental to all business partners. This is detrimental to all of a company's business partners. Therefore, Poly-clip's properly implemented compliance management system not only benefits Poly-clip, but also all customers, suppliers and other business partners in particular.