Ethical corporate culture

At Royal A-ware, our company culture is built upon our mission statement and is guided by our core values: Entrepreneurial, Reliable, Involved and Respectful. Our company culture shapes our behaviour, attitudes and the way we collaborate and engage with customers, dairy farmers and all other stakeholders. By consistently embodying our core values, we strengthen our organisational identity and enhance our ability to achieve sustainable results.

Impacts, risks and opportunities

As part of our DMA, we identified the following material IROs related to 'Ethical corporate culture':

Impact

Actual positive impact on employees, suppliers, customers and other stakeholders by acting with integrity.

Our approach

We foster a strong corporate culture, with a focus on transparency and accountability. We uphold our core values, clearly communicate the behavioural expectations that reflect these values and provide employees with confidential channels to report violations or conduct inconsistent with our standards. The Code of Conduct for Employees and Whistleblower Policy support our objectives.

Corporate culture

Our corporate culture is set out in our mission statement, as well as our core values and our Code of Conduct for Employees.

Core values

Our core values define who we are, what we consider important and how we strive to achieve our goals. These values clearly define the behaviours that we expect employees to uphold.

Entrepreneurial: We stay true to our entrepreneurial spirit by being creative, innovative, bold, forward-thinking, with a focus on identifying opportunities. We actively seek ways to improve and demonstrate both courage and accountability in our decision-making. Our customers value our flexibility, swift action and knowledgeable employees who are empowered to take initiative.

Reliable: We honour our commitments, act with honesty and integrity, and foster relationships built on trust. Our customers see us as reliable because we keep our promises, are transparent and strive to build lasting relationships. As a family company, Royal A-ware is approachable and dependable.

Involved: We are committed to building strong relationships by being open and willing to show vulnerability. We actively foster a positive and enjoyable work environment and show genuine interest in our colleagues and in developments within the company. Our customers see us as involved because we meet their needs, provide support, and respond and think proactively with them. Royal A-ware takes a personal approach to strengthening relationships, and our leadership is both visible and approachable.

Respectful: We treat others the way we ourselves would like to be treated. We value every individual by listening actively, offering thoughtful feedback and engaging in direct, honest conversations. Customers see us as respectful because we listen to their needs and uphold our values. We are invested in our customers and offer personal attention.

Code of Conduct for Employees

The corporate culture is defined in our mission statement, core values and Code of Conduct for Employees.

All employees in dairy activities receive and sign the Code of Conduct for Employees upon joining and attend an introduction day where the Management Board presents Royal A-ware's corporate culture. AB Texel employees are made aware of the Code via their employment contract. Both codes are accessible via intranet (A-ware) and AB Connect (AB Texel).

We promote corporate culture through internal communications including staff magazines (i-Ware and AB Dr!ve), apps (A-ware Speak and AB Connect), and regular video updates from Co-CEO Jan Anker on company developments and culture. Building corporate culture involves management, executives, HR, Corporate Communications and the Central Works Council, with HR leading employee training and activities.

Remediation and grievance mechanisms

We have several mechanisms in place for identifying, reporting and investigating unlawful behaviour or behaviour contrary to the Code of Conduct for Employees. Royal A-ware has separate internal complaints procedures for its dairy and transport operations. These procedures are accessible via the intranet and the internal communication platform, AB Connect and A-ware Speak. The Complaints Committees conduct an annual review to assess whether remedies provided are effective and adjustments to our complaints mechanism or due diligence progress are required. All members of the committees have the work experience to fulfil their roles effectively.

External complaints

We also have an external complaints procedure available on the Royal A-ware and AB Texel websites where stakeholders are able to file complaints related to (potential) negative impacts of Royal A-ware and her value chains on the environment, people and animals.

Whistleblower policy

Royal A-ware’s whistleblower policy enables the reporting of suspected misconduct within the group of companies of Koninklijke A-ware Food Group B.V. (Royal A-ware). Any natural person who suspects misconduct in a work-related context is free to decide whether to report this to Royal A-ware (internal reporting) or to an external body (external reporting), further in accordance with Royal A-ware’s whistleblower policy confidential advisers are available to provide consultation. All confidential advisors within Royal A-ware are trained by external experts, have the necessary qualifications, or both.

The manager or point of first contact will forward any reports of suspected misconduct to the compliance officer. The compliance officer is Royal A-ware’s General Counsel, who possesses the necessary work experience to fulfil the role and does not require additional training. The Compliance Officer will immediately forward the report to the Management Board. Independent investigators will be assigned by the Executive Board (in consultation with the compliance officer) to handle the case, and affected parties are informed unless doing so would compromise the investigation. Investigators may interview the reporting person and other parties involved in order to establish facts. The investigators will ensure that this is recorded in writing and show this record to the person who was interviewed, for approval and signature. Anyone interviewed will be given a copy of this. The investigators can request any information from Royal A-ware that is reasonably necessary to conduct the investigation.

The reporter, their adviser and the officers involved (such as the Compliance Officer, Confidential Adviser, and investigators) will not be treated unfairly or disadvantaged during or after the handling of a report of suspected wrongdoing.

The whistleblower policy complies with the requirements of the Whistleblower Protection Act, which is the implementation of the European Whistleblower Protection Directive 2019/1937.

Corruption and bribery policy

We have a corruption and bribery policy that is consistent with the United Nations Convention against Corruption. As part of our policy, we conducted a risk assessment of the functions most exposed to these risks. The assessment identified the following functions as high-risk:

• Royal A-ware: CEO, CFO and COO.

• A-ware Dairy: Director Finance & Accounting.

• Managing Directors.

• AB Texel: CEO and division controller.

Our Code of Conduct for Employees and whistleblower policy are key tools to prevent, detect and address risks of corruption or bribery. In 2025, there were zero violations of corruption and bribery laws.

We currently do not offer training related to anti-corruption or anti-bribery, but may add this content in the future. Zero percent of the functions at risk are covered by training programmes.

Cases of corruption will be investigated as part of the whistleblower policy. Which includes procedures to investigate cases of corruption and bribery.

Objectives and actions

We implement the following ongoing actions to build and promote corporate culture within our organisation:

• Promoting corporate culture is a shared effort across our organisation. We actively engage employees at both the individual and Central Works Council level. This initiative involves management, executives, the HR department, Corporate Communications and many others.

• Requiring all A-ware Dairy employees to read and sign the Code of Conduct for Employees upon joining the company.

• Informing employees of AB Texel through their employment contracts about AB Connect, where the Code of Conduct can be consulted. These codes includes information about prevention of corruption and bribery. 

• Hosting an introduction day for new employees of A-ware Dairy. On this day, new employees are welcomed to A-ware Dairy and introduced to its corporate culture.

• Communicating corporate culture through internal communication tools, such as staff magazines (e.g., i-Ware and AB Dr!ve) and apps (e.g., A-ware Speak and AB Connect).

• Providing A-ware Dairy employees with regular video updates on company developments. Royal A-ware’s Co-CEO Jan Anker, delivers this video message, in which he also reflects on the company’s culture.

• A welcome video for new colleagues to get to know the company and its corporate culture.

Targets and achievements

Royal A-ware operates across Europe and are therefore required to comply with legislation and regulations relating to business ethics. This provides a solid foundation on which we have build elements like codes of conduct, compliance programmes and whistleblowing mechanisms. These approach structurally safeguard an ethical corporate culture, making the introduction of additional targets unnecessary as they would not deliver added value or enhance compliance. Therefore Royal A-ware has not set specific targets in relation to ethical corporate culture and therefore does not report on achievements or progress against targets.

Grievances provide an important indicator for assessing organisational integrity. Royal A-ware monitors the effectiveness of its grievance mechanisms to ensure they remain fit for purpose. On an annual basis, the Management Board receives a report on the grievance mechanisms (internal complaints procedure, external complaints procedure and the whistleblowing scheme). These reports -combined number of reports related to corruption and bribery is also included (zero reports in 2025) - provide a insight into whether the company’s integrity framework is functioning effectively. In 2025 we changed our approach regarding our complaints system, which had an effect on the reported number of complaints. All notifications have now been reported regardless of the outcome of their handling.