BUSINESS: 381 PRACTICES
The mining company HELLAS GOLD SA was established in December 2003 with aiming to: Operate mines of all kinds, processing and marketing of minerals, establish and operate metalworking operations for vertical integration of production in Halkidiki.
The management of our supply chain aims to ensure our competitive advantage, protect the environment and strengthen the local economy by choosing local suppliers. Our supply chain management program takes into account issues related to various functions, from manufacturing, after sales service, transportation and as physical distribution.
All our stakeholders. However, the main audiences affected are the local communities and our suppliers.
Improvement targets in relation to the development of local suppliers and enhancing their performance in environmental protection and health and safety (2014-2018).
From 2012 In Hellas Gold we have developed a procurement policy based on three main principles: health and safety, environmental protection and local development.
Enhancing income power through the selection of local suppliers is a key strategy of the company. The turnover of local suppliers and subcontractors in the Municipality of Aristotle represents approximately 20% of the total turnover of all suppliers and subcontractors cooperating with Hellas Gold. In a municipality with a population of about 20,000 residents this is a positive shock to the economic activity. Also, the increase of population in the mining villages the last 10 years is given (up to 17% in the Olympics), when areas with mainly tourist product in the area showed the same time reducing their population. Furthermore the Chalkidiki province has the lowest unemployment rate in Northern Greece Factors contributing to this are related to the large participation of the tourism product, the activation of Hellas Gold in the northeastern part of the county and the development of the local market. Finally, the per capita income in the Northeast Halkidiki was in 2017 among the highest in the county.
The local suppliers support over time has resulted in the wider development of the region and the simultaneous creation of a developed network of suppliers and contractors in the area ensuring that the company products and services are of good quality, low cost and quick availability. This preference in the local market is not at the expense of environmental protection or of health and safety rules as suppliers and partners evolve and improve based on the rules that we set before signing any cooperation.
Our purchasing department integrates environmental practices in the supply chain planning in cooperation with the Environmental Department. The result of this cooperation is the Environmental management manual for contractors that is a part of each relevant contract and its main objective is to protect the environment and to avoid any environmental damage.
The contractors of our company are obliged to train their staff on environmental issues repeatedly and also before beginning or our cooperation.
The practices above are resulting to the purchase of better and environmentally safer products and services for Hellas Gold and at the same time to further support and develop the local market. The development of the local market apart from the social effect, helps the company to optimize our supply chain in the long run.
Company procurement policies reflect the strategy of bolstering the local market by directing large amounts of money to a small municipality, thereby directly contributing to greater turnover in that market. Key factors in the supply chain are local supplier management, optimising the existing transport network, combining and merging cargoes and using transhipment centres, not just to ensure growth but also to ensure proper operating procedures are in place. Hellas Gold also collaborates with supply businesses that are owned by women in an effort to bolster local employment levels for women.
Τhe lower unemployment rates in the region in alighment with the fact that the villages around the mines have the highest reported income in the prefecture of Halkidiki demonstrate the overall development and well-being caused by mining in the region. Local suppliers and contractors with their growth and with the responsible operation as Hellas Gold partners are acquiring expansion possibilities and taking more and more projects and partnerships beyond Aristotle municipality limits.
“€ 21.000.000 spent on local suppliers in 2016, 85% the percentage of Greek businesses which were suppliers in 2016.
With the logic of concentric circles in the preference for suppliers, Municipality Aristotle, Chalkidiki Province, Central Macedonia Area, Greek Territory.
Hellas Gold in its effort to achieve responsible procurement that enhance the local and national economy, cooperates with all suppliers and their business associations and participates as a member in the Industries of Northern Greece, the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises and many chambers of commerce.
The company promotes a culture of responsible procurement in an effort l to strengthen the local and the national economy as well as the promotion of suppliers that meet environmental criteria and high standards of health and safety as a part of its procurement policy.
The benefit of this parallel economic development is multidimensional. First of all, local suppliers year after year are in financial and technological terms stronger with the result of providing to our company products and services of better quality. Moreover, the continuous training of Hellas Gold to suppliers in health and safety and environmental protection in alignment with the incorporation of corresponding terms in all the company's cooperation agreements results to improved quality traits of almost all the local suppliers. Finally, the creation of this local supplier network around the company results in more timely service of our company.
