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Modern slaverystatement
Modern slavery is unacceptable, simple as that. We all have to play our part in stopping it and protecting human rights. Flying Flowers is a brand operated by Interflora, and each year we publish a modern slavery statement that explains what we’ve been doing to prevent modern slavery and human trafficking in our organisation and supply chains.
Interflora’s Current Modern Slavery Statement
This statement (this “Statement”) is made by Interflora British Unit and has been published in accordance with section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the “Act”). This Statement covers the financial year 1st January 2025 to 31st December 2025 and outlines the steps Interflora British Unit has taken to prevent modern slavery and human trafficking in its business, its brands and its supply chains. Unless the context indicates otherwise, the terms “Interflora,” “we,” “its,” “us” and “our” refer to Interflora British Unit.
The Interflora commitment to tackling modern slavery
This is our tenth Modern Slavery Statement and our Board of Directors (our “Board”) continue to lead Interflora’s activity against modern slavery, looking closely at our business, our partner florists, our direct supply chain partners and our own employees. We encourage all our people to take responsibility, not only for ensuring that we conduct ourselves in the right way and with respect for others, but also that we are aware of and are looking out for signs that any individuals we come across could be experiencing a violation of their fundamental human rights. If that happens, we want to make sure our people know what actions to take.
This Statement details what we have achieved over the last year as part of our fundamental responsibility to eradicate modern slavery from our supply chains, and looks ahead to our plans for next year, and the future.
Our organisational structure, business and supply chains
Interflora is part of the world’s most established and well-known flower relay organisation. We operate alongside third-party partners in the US and Europe. Via this combined network of partner florists, we are connected all over the globe, matching orders from consumers with a local provider near the point of delivery, wherever that may be. We also operate Flying Flowers which is a boxed floral delivery service.
The nature of our business model means that our flower & plant supply chains are diverse and geographically spread. Flowers and plants are commercially grown all over the world and transported into the UK, supplied to florists and packing houses either direct from the growers, or via wholesale supply chains. Most of the flowers and plants used to fulfil our orders will be sourced from Europe, Africa and South America. During 2024, we focused on increasing the volume of British grown flowers used in our Interflora and Flying Flowers orders as part of our Purpose work to ‘Protect our Natural World’ and ‘Support our Local Communities’.
With respect to our Interflora network, in the UK and Ireland, our 850+ partner florists are all independent traders in their own right. They join Interflora to enable them to send and execute orders nationally and internationally. Our partner florists purchase their own stock of fresh flowers, plants and sundries to fulfil both Interflora orders and their own local orders. Florists can also purchase wholesale sundry items through our own Marketplace website, including both Interflora branded and unbranded items. Our partner florists usually deliver orders locally using their own delivery vehicles; from June 2025 we introduced a new model ‘Florist Boxed’ which allows 3 florists to deliver flowers in a box nationwide using a third-party carrier, enabling deliveries to locations where there are temporary coverage gaps in our florist network.
For our Flying Flowers business those orders are packed and distributed from our chosen flower and plant supply partners and delivered by our carrier partners. Through one of these supply partners we also deliver ornamental plants for the Interflora brand. These supply partners purchase flower, plant, hamper and sundry stock on our behalf in order to fulfil our orders.
In addition to our flowers and plants orders, we also deliver hampers nationally through a third-party party hamper supplier.
Retail floristry has three peak floral events per year: Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Christmas. We recognise that these peaks drive a significant uplift in order volumes, increasing demand for short-term labour, particularly in our flower and plant supply partners. This results in an increased reliance on short-term agency staff in those locations.
Our Head Office is based in Sleaford, Lincolnshire and employs 161 individuals at the time of writing.
Our Policies and Risk Assessments
Agriculture and horticulture are high risk sectors for modern slavery both in the UK and overseas, and so we take care to work with partners that have robust policies in place both in the packing houses in the UK, and at growers and packers overseas, particularly in Africa and South America.
Our florists are all required to agree to comply with our Anti-Slavery & Human Trafficking Policy (our “Policy”) and our Supplier Code of Conduct as part of their onboarding process. As a condition of joining the Interflora network, the Code of Conduct requires the florist to commit to effectively addressing and preventing slavery and human trafficking within their business and their supply chains, and allowing Interflora to audit their business as required, or if an allegation of modern slavery in their business is made.
All third-party suppliers across all departments are also required to sign the Modern Slavery Code of Conduct before they can be set up as a supplier and start invoicing; this applies whether the supplier is a large, global organisation or a local sole trader. Signing of the Code of Conduct was made a mandatory requirement to our Supplier Due Diligence process from 2022 onwards and has led to zero suppliers being identified in 2025 without a signed Code of Conduct on record.
Our current Modern Slavery Code of Conduct was originally created for the launch of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and is therefore over ten years old; during the past year we have reviewed the document, revised its content and incorporated its requirements into a wider Sustainable Supply Chain Charter (SSCC) which is due to roll out to supplier in 2026. Launch of the SSCC was delayed from 2025 in order to fully incorporate our requirements for supplier conduct with regards to modern slavery and human rights, and upon launch of the SSCC in 2026 the standalone Modern Slavery Code of Conduct will be retired.
Our flower and plant supplier is one of the largest in the industry and has a robust and comprehensive Modern Slavery Act compliance programme in place, not just for themselves but also for their upstream supply chains; this is overseen by their dedicated ESG team. Due to their size, they are also required under the Act to publish their own annual Modern Slavery Statement which is highly detailed and covers all aspects of their UK and overseas operations. Their policies apply to those people and organisations further up our supply chains, requiring their suppliers to take responsibility not only for their employees, but also doe their contractors, sub-contractors, suppliers and agency workers to ensure they are all treated fairly and are aware of their requirements under the Modern Slavery Act.
Our detailed Supplier Audit, for those suppliers who we deem to be high risk, was completed by five key suppliers at the start of the year. The audit requires suppliers to provide information on:
- Employees profile (numbers/agencies/third parties)
- Employee rights, and workers’ awareness of policies
- Recruitment (focused on employee hours and contracts)
- Working hours, facilities/conditions and benefits
- Awareness of Modern Slavery risks & possible breaches in the wider supply chain
- Internal Modern Slavery Awareness - policies/processes/training
No concerns were raised as a result of these audits.
Interflora holds several internal policies which guide colleagues in raising concerns about modern slavery: Anti-Slavery & Human Trafficking Policy, Whistleblowing Policy, Disciplinary Policy, Diversity Policy and Dignity at Work Policy. All policies are easily accessible via Interflora’s intranet.
Due Diligence
As outlined above, our Supplier Due Diligence process requires a signed Modern Slavery Code of Conduct to be signed and submitted before we can set up a third-party supplier in our systems. Implemented in 2022, this led to zero suppliers without a Modern Slavery Code of Conduct in 2023, 2024 and again in 2025. Very infrequently a supplier will decline to sign our Code of Conduct; we continue with our process to review these suppliers on a case by case basis, to either:
- approve businesses that are deemed to have their own robust modern slavery policy and/or Statement; or
- follow up on smaller suppliers to understand their reasons for declining, reassure on the rationale and detail of the Modern Slavery Code of Conduct, and either get to a place of signing or decline to work with the supplier
Whilst we continue to use this standalone Modern Slavery Code of Conduct currently, it has been incorporated into a wider Sustainable Supply Chain Charter which is due to be rolled out in 2025.
Within the Florist Services department, there is a team of Business Development Managers (BDMs) covering the UK and Ireland, who spend much of their time visiting existing Interflora florist shops, and onboarding new shops to our network. This team has undertaken our Modern Slavery training and all BDMs are aware of the warning signs to look out for, and how to escalate concerns to Head Office should they spot something concerning. In February 2025, a BDM escalated concerns regarding a florist shop in the wider London area, and an unannounced visit to the shop was carried out by the BDM and the Head of Wholesale & Supply. The shop was inspected and members of staff were spoken to; no evidence of modern slavery was found, and a call by the Head of Wholesale & Supply to the Modern Slavery Helpline confirmed our findings.
Our Product & Supply and Customer Experience teams spend a significant amount of time on site at our flower and plant suppliers throughout the year as part of our annual Product Development cycle, either through product development sessions, pre-production testing, or general review meetings. These visits are planned and will usually involve visiting the factory floor and interacting with staff on production lines. Within the Wholesale & Supply team we have a Supply Executive role that fulfils the main responsibility for our work on eradicating modern slavery in our supply chains.
Reporting
We have a dedicated email address msacompliance@interflora.co.uk which can be used to raise concerns about modern slavery in our supply chains.
In 2025 we did not receive any contact via our email helpline to flag potential modern slavery risk, and nor did we identify any suppliers that we chose to cease trading with or declined to use. Should we receive any reports, they will be promptly investigated and acted upon appropriately.
Training
Our in-house video training course was distributed again in May 2025 for all new starters in the business for the preceding 12 months. The 30 minute video training course focusses on the following:
- Explaining the wide range of abuse and exploitation that constitutes modern slavery
- Identifying the high-risk areas for modern slavery in Interflora’s supply chain
- Describing who is at risk of modern slavery, and how they are trapped
- Reinforcing the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and defining its importance to Interflora
- Advising colleagues on the signs to look for that may indicate modern slavery is taking place
- Setting out clear steps on what colleagues should do if they suspect modern slavery
In total, 9 new starters were sent the training video, and 9 of the 9 (100%) completed the full course. Each year we consider refreshing the content of the video but decided that as there have been no material changes to the law or facts contained in the video, we will review the content again in a year’s time.
In October 2025, a podcast episode focusing on Modern Slavery and recorded by the Head of Wholesale & Supply was launched on Interflora’s Bloomcast channel, created for florists inside and outside of the Interflora network and available on Spotify.
In March 2025, our Head of Wholesale & Supply attended a conference hosted by the Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre (MSPEC) at the University of Oxford - ‘Ten years on from the Modern Slavery Act: Where next for modern slavery law and policy?’. The details of this conference were shared back to the business via our internal communications, and a book written by one of the Keynote speakers on the realities of modern slavery was purchased for Interflora’s colleagues library.
We’ve continued to share posts about modern slavery with colleagues via our internal Viva Engage communication site, including news articles, a review of the 10th anniversary of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, and engagement ahead of and following Global Anti-Slavery Day in October.
As we have done since 2022, we marked Global Anti-Slavery Day in October 2025 with an activity to raise awareness of modern slavery in our local communities, placing posies of flowers out in public spaces alongside information cards detailing what modern slavery is, how to identify it and what to do if you suspect it. This year, we distributed posies and cards to over 30 locations across the UK, and as we usually do, we identified several instances of wider engagement on social media as finders of posies were encouraged to share images of their posies and the messaging, taking Interflora for visibility.
One of the five finalists for the 2025 Interflora Sustainable Floristry Innovation Award was a London based charity organisation called Strength & Stem, using floristry to empower female modern slavery survivors to restore confidence and build applicable skills to live successful lives beyond slavery. The award aims to identity, celebrate and support the many innovative approaches florists, growers, suppliers and other stakeholders in the floristry industry are taking to transform the industry for the future, either environmental or social benefit. The award is run over 3 days as part of the Harrogate Flower Show, where finalists are showcased on plinths and visitors to the show are given a guided tour of the five finalists’ plinths, explaining the products and services, and telling the finalists’ stories. As part of the 2025 show, the reality of modern slavery and work of Strength & Stem was seen by over 24k visitors, raising awareness of the topic with the public, and ending with the charity finishing as 2nd runners up in the public vote for “making the biggest difference in creating a more sustainable floristry industry”.
What’s Next?
The Modern Slavery Code of Conduct has been incorporated into a wider Sustainable Supply Chain Charter (SSCC) due to be rolled out in 2026. The requirement for suppliers to acknowledge the SSCC will remain as part of the Supplier Due Diligence process, with sign-off requiring proof of SSCC acknowledgement from the supplier. The roll-out of the SSCC will include an internal launch to all colleagues, in-depth colleague workshops for those working directly with suppliers, bringing existing suppliers under the SSCC, and a process for onboarding new suppliers via the SSCC.
Following a hiatus from external training in 2025, the Supply Executive and Head of Wholesale & Supply will be attending further Stronger Together training courses during 2026. We also plan to investigate becoming a Stronger Together business partner in 2026.
We plan to carry out a revisit of existing site audits at our key product suppliers throughout 2026.
We’d really like to see our Global Anti-Slavery activity rolled out into more locations around the UK and Ireland. In 2026, we’re planning to work with Strength and Stem and the Mother’s Union (MU) to enable a far greater penetration of the activity via MU groups and the Strength & Stem student alumni.
This statement is approved by the Board of Interflora British Unit date June 2026.
Lyn Davies
Director – Interflora Consumer
On behalf of the Board of Interflora British Unit