Coles Partners with Kinaway!
Overview of the Partner’s business
Coles is one of Australia’s leading retailers, with an extensive footprint of over 1,800 retail outlets nationally. We employ more than 115,000 team members, engage with more than 8,000 suppliers, and we welcome millions of customers through our store network and digital platforms every week.
How has the Partner engaged with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island businesssector? What actions have they taken to reconciliation? Any special programs, projects or collaborations? E.g. RAPs, employment, procurement
At Coles, we’re driven by our purpose of helping Australians eat and live better every day, which we extend to First Nations people across the country through the lens of our Stretch Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).
Our RAP sets out our ambition to Win Together through demonstratable impact aligned to three priority areas:
Mutually Beneficial and Trusted Relationships
Building Our Cultural Knowledge and Understanding
Self-Determination and Economic Advancement
Our vision for reconciliation is to create an environment where Coles and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander colleagues, customers and communities can Win Together. We’re proud to say that 3.5% of our Coles Group team members identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, making us one of the largest private sector employers of Indigenous Australians. In addition, we’re connected to 80 Indigenous businesses through our supply chain and are taking steps every day to further understanding and recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, histories and knowledge across the business.
Why did the Partner sign up with Kinaway? What was the driving factor?
We’re committed to creating more opportunities for Indigenous businesses to engage with Coles. We’re proud to be connected with 80 Indigenous businesses through our supply chain, however recognise we still have more work to do.
By working with Kinaway, we aim to create a two-way partnership with the Victorian Indigenous business sector and drive positive outcomes with businesses. Through our partnership we want to connect with Indigenous businesses and create pathways for more businesses to engage with Coles. Through connecting with Kinaway, we can seek to better understand how we can support the Indigenous business sector in Victoria and adapt our processes and uplift our internal team’s capability to support Indigenous businesses.
What is the Partner’s mission or aim in supporting the Indigenous economy? How will Kinaway member businesses benefit from this partnership?
Our focus is building long-term and sustainable relationships with our supplier partners to enable us to focus on transformational activity through our supply chain, rather than just transactional - the Coles Nurture Fund is a great example of how we've been able to work with Indigenous growers and producers over longer periods of time and provide initial engagement opportunities with our business.
There will be opportunities for Kinaway members to engage with Coles, during NRW, NAIDOC Week and Indigenous Business Month and through our partnership, members can benefit from a direct connection into Coles’ Indigenous Affairs team. We aim to support Indigenous business uplift and capability development and can offer access to our strategic, skilled and large procurement and commercial teams.
How does the Partner hope to benefit from their partnership with Kinaway?
We’re on a journey to better understand how we can innovate and adapt our supply chain to create more pathways for Indigenous businesses to engage with Coles. Through partnering with Kinaway we hope to be able to work directly with members to help us in defining their needs and working together to innovate and remove barriers.
This partnership will also help contribute to our RAP targets associated with Indigenous suppliers.