Management and Corporate Governance

Our supplier management – setting standards for good relations

We exert considerable influence on society and the environment in many regions through our purchasing volume. In the reporting period, we purchased goods and services from about 101,000 suppliers in 125 countries for approximately €18.1 billion in total, and reported these purchases in the central ordering system. Among OECD countries, Germany, the United States and Japan accounted for just under 67 percent of these expenditures. This corresponds to about 56 percent of total procurement spending by the Bayer Group. The three BRIC countries China, Brazil and India accounted for 13 percent of total expenditures, or 73 percent of total spending among the non-OECD countries.

Supplier Day: John Watson, President, Strategic Partnering and Chief Commercial Officer of Covance Inc., Richard Spoor, Head of Procurement and Chairman of the Group Procurement Committee of Bayer HealthCare, and Bayer CEO Dr. Marijn Dekkers (from left) in discussion

Sustainability-based supplier management is a strategically important lever for Bayer – both for safeguarding global competitiveness and supply security and for ensuring efficient processes and lowering reputation risks. Responsible conduct throughout our entire supply chain enables us to maintain stable and long-term relationships with our business partners. The Group-wide policy guidelines issued by our Procurement Community – and directed toward all employees with purchasing responsibility – set out the principles of our procurement policy.

Sustainability in procurement Cooperation with our suppliers is based on our Supplier Code of Conduct, which describes our sustainability principles and requirements in transactions with suppliers.
As a fixed element of our supplier selection and evaluation process, it is legally binding and integrated into all electronic ordering systems and contracts throughout the Group. Furthermore, all employees based in procurement are provided with additional standardized clauses for the integration of sustainability requirements into framework agreements. To participate in bidding processes, suppliers must bindingly confirm before submitting an offer in our supplier management system that they acknowledge Bayer’s Supplier Code of Conduct.

More information about our supplier management can be found in the Sustainability Report 2012.

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