Woolworths Supplier Excellence (WSE)

Woolworths Supplier Excellence (WSE)

Benchmarking the Woolworths Supplier Excellence program against global product safety standards and international retailing best practice 

Benchmarking the Woolworths Supplier Excellence program against global product safety standards and international retailing best practice 
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Woolworths Supplier Excellence (WSE)

The Woolworths Supplier Excellence (WSE) Standard represents benchmarking of the Woolworths Supplier Excellence Program against global product safety standards and international retailing best practice. This standard applies to businesses which have been nominated by the respective Woolworths Business Teams as part of the contractual requirements for supply. This program is by Woolworths’ invitation only and no Supplier can formally engage in any part of the Woolworths Supplier Excellence Program process without Woolworths’ consent.

BSI is an approved WSE Certification Body, with a large team of experts across Australia, New Zealand, Asia, USA, UK and Europe. We are trained and available to audit against WSE requirements for Certification, Surveillance and Recertification purposes.

The certification scope will be specific for:

  • The products the Woolworths Business Team have nominated you to supply
  • The individual premises from which these products are manufactured and/or supplied

Apart from the Food Manufacturing Requirements and Code of Practices, Woolworths also has other standards such as:

  • Industry Standard for Brokers, Agents, Head Offices: The scope of the Industry Standard for Supply Chain covers all Service Providers where there is no open product handling at any point in the supply chain. This includes: Storage/Warehousing, Agents/Brokers and Wholesalers.
  • Supplier Excellence General Requirements Consumer Goods General Merchandise and Non Trade Standard: Refers to all general merchandise, packaging products, health, beauty, household, non food grocery, formulated non food products, and where applicable non trade products.

As determined by Woolworths, Suppliers will be required to achieve and maintain certification to the Woolworths Supplier Excellence Program, in addition to any existing regulatory or voluntary audits that may be currently in place (including import/export protocols, where applicable).

How often will I be audited under the WSE program?

The WSE Certification Audit process will be ongoing, and associated audits will be carried out on a frequency determined by the type of certification the business has such as GFSI and audit outcomes.

Latest Update

New Woolworths Supplier Excellence Program Version 3 for Food is to be auditable since the 1 July 2023.

Woolworths Responsible Sourcing Program

The Responsible Sourcing Program is framed by Woolworth’s Responsible Sourcing Policy which outline Woolworths’ commitment to upholding the human rights of the workers in their supply chain. Woolworths Responsible Sourcing Standards are a key way that Woolworths implements the Policy commitments. They include comprehensive criteria on business integrity, labour rights, fair and safe working conditions and environmental compliance.

Recognizing many of their suppliers are already a part of a social compliance audit program, Woolworths will now accept a number of third party social compliance schemes. As an approved Certification Body, BSI can support you to comply with the criteria set out in the Responsible Sourcing Standards by conducting Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (Sedex)’s SMETA audits.

Why BSI?

The food industry impacts every person on the planet. Though what the world’s population may eat may differ depending on the geography, wealth, age, gender and availability of goods, no other sector plays such a vital role in all of our day-today lives and culture. Economically, food represents 10% of global GDP (valued at US$48 trillion by the World Bank).

But the food sector also faces significant challenges. Each year, food-borne illness makes one in ten people ill and is the cause of death for millions around the world. Population growth projections and an increasing middle class suggest that the demand for food will increase 70% by 2050. And, consumers are increasingly conscious about what goes into their food, how it’s made, its impact on ecosystems and where it comes from.

BSI believes the world deserves food that is safe, sustainable and socially responsible. We support the food sector by developing and publishing standards of best practice, supply chain solutions as well as training and certification to not only the most popular food safety standards, but other business improvement standards that work together to make organizations more resilient.

Working in 172 countries, we pride ourselves on the expertise, integrity and professionalism of our people. Our mission is to help our 80,000 clients, ranging from high-profile global brands to small local companies, survive and prosper in today’s world.

BSI Group is accredited and licensed to offer the SQF scopes that can be verified here.

In addition to the accredited SQF scope, BSI also offers the following programs unaccredited:

·       SQF Food Safety Code for Food Retail

·       SQF Food Safety Code for Food service

·       SQF Fundamentals for Manufacturing (Basic and Intermediate)

·       SQF Fundamentals for Primary Production (Basic and Intermediate)

·       SQF Suppliers Addendums