DIA and corporate responsibility

The DIA Group works actively towards economic progress and the creation of value in all the communities in which it operates, building trust with its customers and other stakeholders, with an offer of quality food at the best prices on the market. The efficient management of its resources, together with an unwavering commitment to profitable and sustainable growth, are carried out through an integrated system at all levels of the group, in keeping with internationally recognised values of social, environmental and good governance criteria.

The company bases these lines of action on a General Policy of Corporate Social Responsibility, approved by the Board of Directors and adapted to the recommendations of Good Governance of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), which serves as the framework reference for all of the group’s constituents and companies in different areas: responsible management, commitment to people and collectives with which it has dealings, quality and price, franchises, and environmental protection.

During 2016, the company worked on the development of three fundamental aspects in matters of Social Responsibility:

• Evaluation and subsequent approval of Corporate policies of the different areas.
• Development and definition of a materiality analysis that enables the identification of risks and opportunities, as well as he priority issues for its stakeholders.
• Presentation of the 2017-2020 CSR Master Plan, which constitutes the road map in this area and aligns actions with company policies.

CSR Organisation at DIA

The DIA Group has a Corporate Social Responsibility organisational structure that is supervised directly by the Board of Directors through its Audit and Compliance Committee, which is comprised of five independent directors.

The company structures its principles in these matters through its Corporate Social Responsibility Policy, undertaking action at all levels through a Master Plan that articulates priorities according to needs and establishes lines of action.

The subsequent report is the responsibility of the CSR Committee, led by the Director of Sustainable Development, comprised of the managers of the Group’s CSR material issues (definitors), who are responsible for defining the performance indicators and for verifying that the managers in the functional area of each country (contributors) report accurate information and data in accordance with the established requirements. In this process, the recommendations of the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) are followed, using the management software Enablon SD-CSR (Sustainable Development – Corporate Social Responsibility).

To ensure the reliability and accuracy of the data, for the response of the indicators, contributing users attach the data reported to the supporting documentation that justifies the information entered in the system, which allows the traceability of the same, as well as enabling its verification.

To guarantee and make this process more reliable, it is essential that the data complete three levels of validation.

•  Country Level: Each country is responsible for reporting its sustainable development in the same way that it is responsible for its Income Statement.
•  Functional Level: Beyond the validation at the country level, there is a second validation at functional level, which is performed by the functional managers of the corporate team. They verify that their functional area has been reported in all countries in accordance with the definitions that they themselves have given and that have been published in Enablon.
• Corporate Level. The third level of validation is corporate, performed by the coordinator of the group. If an error is detected (in any of the three validation levels), actions are taken to authenticate it.

The CSR Committee gathers and verifies the information received from the different departments every three months, in accordance with the previous definitions made in accordance with the defined KPIs.