GMPC: Compliance Ahead of the Curve

In recent years, there has been a lot of controversy around social responsibility in the industry, as audit firms have been outed for corruption and large retailers have shifted away from third party audits to acceptance of standardized certificates such as WRAP and BSCI. We talked with Josh Cherin, Vice President, Supply Chain at GMPC to learn more about how industry brands can stay ahead of the curve on compliance.

How has GMPC addressed its clients’ need for transparent supplier evaluations for compliance?
In the world of social and environmental Compliance, as well as security, we have learned that the only way to accommodate our broad range of accounts is to have boots on the ground in our key manufacturing destinations.

In partnership with Elevate GLOBAL, we launched our own Corporate Social Responsilbility program to give our customers a layer of compliance monitoring that is rare in our industry. We not only have our own compliance team to survey and monitor factory conditions, but we also work with auditors at Elevate GLOBAL to offer official assessments, eLearning programs on safety and compliance, and advice to factories on how to reach compliance goals.

A lot of times factories might find ways to pass a one-time audit, but through ongoing engagement with factories, GMPC gets a very clear and transparent view of the entire operation.

How can brands align their supply chain with their values?
To truly align compliance and brand values, it’s critical to identify what it is that matters most to your brand – not just what is important, but the factors that you are willing to let impact your price and quality.




For example, we work with a brand that places tremendous importance on sustainability. For their core business, where they produce millions of units, they are able to meet all the requirements to produce a fully sustainable product. However, on apparel and accessories, they wanted the same cradle-to-grave certification, but with smaller quantities than they would traditionally order in footwear. Because we’ve pioneered a sustainable supply chain as part of our brand Econscious, we were able to deliver on t-shirts, headwear and bags, which they are extremely excited about bringing to market.

How does GMPC monitor compliance for its clients?
GMPC’s senior compliance analyst and our Elevate GLOBAL compliance partner continually monitor our key suppliers with both phone calls and visits, which gives us insight into changes, improvements and maintenance on site.

In addition, GMPC works with factories both pre- and post-audit to understand regulations and customer compliance expectations and to make sure that any corrective action is properly completed.

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