Managing corporate responsibility at Vaasan

Vaasan’s corporate responsibility is more than its five areas: it is a part of our day-to-day activities, future and development that our entire organisation is committed to. Corporate responsibility is a backbone of our strategic leadership, and our management group is committed to execute it. A separate steering group is responsible for implementing, tracking, planning and developing corporate responsibility. Business units report about the realization of responsibility goals to the steering and management groups twice a year.

Operating and quality system continuously improved

Vaasan has an operating and quality system that is used to continuously improve our operations. The system is made of common practices relating to quality, product safety, environment and personnel. The system is also an integral part of our corporate responsibility.

The current operating and quality system was developed during 2012 and launched in early 2013. The new system enables us to communicate our common practices in a uniform way in all countries we operate in. The common operating system also makes co-operation, communication and strategy work more efficient throughout the company.

Certificates show our continuous improvement

Food safety systems

One of the most significant achievements in 2014 in terms of food safety was creating the company-wide FSSC 22000 certification. This is a big change, because for the first time we all have a common food safety certificate and system. This means that no matter which Vaasan bakery our clients buy their products from, they all have the same food safety and quality requirements.

Our systems in all units are according to the ISO 22000 certificate.

Environmental systems

The Vaasan Environmental Programme is based on the ISO 14001 standard and the framework that it provides for planning, developing, and monitoring the practical aspects of environmental work.

The Kotka bakery and Helsinki headquarters have been granted the ISO 14001 certificate. Although only some of our bakeries have official certificates, the requirements are used in the entire Vaasan Ltd.

Quality certificates

Our goal is to build a company-wide ISO 9001 certification system. At the moment, the operations in Finland, Latvia and Lithuania have been granted the ISO 9001 certificate.