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Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement 2024

About this statement

This statement is made by the Board of Directors of Dreams Ltd (Dreams) pursuant to Section 54, part 6 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (“the Act”). It covers the activities and actions undertaken by Dreams during the financial year ending 24 December 2024, to ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in any of our supply chains or in any part of our business.

Hello from Jonathan

Jonathan Hirst, Dreams CEO
Jonathan Hirst, Dreams CEO

“Dreams officially began its journey in Uxbridge in 1987, evolving from a sofa bed shop to a specialist in mattress retailing.

Since then, our business has significantly expanded, operating over 220 stores nationwide, managing our own Bed Factory in the Midlands, and maintaining 18 distribution centres throughout the UK. With a dedicated workforce of over 2,400 colleagues, we are the UK’s most loved bed retailer. Central to our mission - ‘delivering the best journey to your perfect quality bed’ is a key element of our core values: prioritising our customers, celebrating success and being authentic at every step. Our mission and values are underpinned by a people-first culture and a commitment to be a force for good, creating a safe, ethical and supportive place to work.

Recognising and addressing the serious and ongoing threat of modern slavery and human trafficking is fundamental to this. As our business expands and our supply chains become more intricate, we remain committed to ensuring all colleagues within Dreams and our supply chain partners are treated with fairness, dignity, and respect. We encourage everyone within the Dreams community to remain vigilant, speak up about potential issues, and trust that appropriate and meaningful actions will follow. 

Throughout 2024, we have had no reportable incidents or significant non-conformances, and continued to improve transparency, visibility, and engagement with different parts of our supply chain. Renewing our strategic partnership with Verisio, an independent specialist in supply chain and ethical auditing, and leveraging existing partnerships, has deepened our mutual understanding of complex ethical issues and implemented resources and actions to reduce identified risks.

While we have made progress over the past year, we acknowledge that business growth brings increased risks. Therefore, we remain committed to continuous investment in areas such as relocating more of our supply chain closer to home each year and enhancing our rigorous ethical-audit programme. 

I’m immensely proud of our colleagues across the entire Dreams network for their continued dedication to doing the right thing. Together, we are building a supportive environment focused on tackling this critical and complex issue head-on.”

Jonathan Hirst, Dreams CEO

Dreams store

Our business

We make, buy, sell and deliver beds and mattresses to UK households through our network of shops and online channels.

Our operations are spread across many sites: 

  • Our head office, fondly referred to as ‘Bedquarters’, is based in High Wycombe and holds over 270 colleagues, including our Customer Services team of approximately 60 colleagues. 
  • As a proudly British business, over half of the mattresses we sell are made at our Bed Factory in Oldbury by our expert craftspeople, and we are committed to making more and more of our products right here in the UK. In September 2024 we received the distinguished Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®) accreditation for all wooden products produced at our Bed factory. Wooden related products make up over a third of Dreams’ Bed Factory total production.
  • 18 distribution sites are located around the UK, of which 12 home delivery centres deliver more than 520,000 customer orders each year. There are approximately 750 colleagues in our supply chain network.
  • We have four warehouses in the West Midlands including our largest, state-of-the-art warehousing facility in Willenhall, opened in March 2023. 
Dreams workshop logo

Dreams trades under two brands: Dreams and Feather & Black and we are owned by the world’s largest bedding company, Somnigroup International, Inc. (formally known as Tempur Sealy International Inc.)  

Dreams store Factory

Our supply chain and distribution

Dreams store

Products made at our own factory make up over half of all the goods we sell. Dreams operates its own warehousing and distribution service.

Our fleet of trailers distributes our beds and mattresses to our country-wide network of 12 home delivery service centres, where more than 589 full-time colleagues support the deployment of 195 3.5 tonne vans, each with two-person delivery crews. Every week, around 10,000 customer orders, increasing to more than 14,000 a week during our peak season, are fulfilled by our 150-strong warehouse team.   

To scale output in Scotland, in June 2024, Dreams relocated its distribution warehouse in Cumbernauld to a 25,000 sq. ft warehousing facility in Gartcosh. This new facility provides a 30% increase in stock capacity to improve product availability and provide shorter lead times for customers in response to increasing demands for faster and more flexible deliveries. As the only Dreams distribution centre to serve the whole of Scotland, the Gartcosh site significantly reduces the length of handling time between a purchase leaving our Bed Factory and arriving at the customer’s home. 

Our policy on modern slavery and human trafficking

Dreams store

We make this uncompromising promise to our stakeholders, value chain and the public:

Dreams will not work with any business discovered to be knowingly involved with modern slavery or human trafficking.

We expect our suppliers to agree and align to Dreams’ values and treat all colleagues with fairness, dignity and respect. 

In essence, modern slavery is where a person is exploited through threats of violence, coercion, deception, or abuse of power. It can include forced and child labour. Human trafficking refers to facilitating the travel of a person for the purpose of exploitation. The offences are set out in Part 1 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. 

We know that there is an ever-present risk of exposure to modern slavery in our complex and dynamic global supply chains, and that risk is heightened where we have less direct visibility.

Dreams has a zero-tolerance view of modern slavery in all its forms. We are committed to meeting this complex challenge through vigilance, rigorous oversight, ethical engagement with suppliers, and training. 

We also recognise that there will be occasions when it is more appropriate for us to work with and support our suppliers in eradicating any instances of non-conformity identified during our ethical review process. Where this is feasible, it allows us to be a force for good in driving and managing change that positively benefits supplier workers.

We require our suppliers to:

  • Sign and comply with our Supplier Codes of Conduct (SCOC).
  • Agree to and comply with our modern day slavery and human trafficking provisions set out in our supplier contracts.
Dreams store
Factory
Dreams store

Our due diligence process

Modern slavery and human trafficking in all its forms is a significant consideration for all areas of our business.  

The executive leadership team set the overall strategic direction for our wider Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) obligations.  Our ESG agenda is underpinned by our Force for Good business enabler which sets out the key programme of initiatives focused on doing right by our colleagues, the communities we touch and the planet. Overseeing our modern-slavery commitments forms part of our ESG responsibilities. Strategic implementation for modern slavery is delegated to our Modern Slavery steering group, chaired and supported by an industry-recognised independent consultancy on supply-chain ethics and sustainability. Senior managers from across the business are represented on the steering group so human-rights issues and modern-slavery awareness are integrated across all functions.

At an operational level, human rights and ethical auditing of Tier 1 suppliers (direct suppliers of Dreams product or services) sits with our Chief Commercial Officer, supported by the Technical and Ethical team. Ethical management of our Goods Not For Resale (GNFR) suppliers (goods and services that support our operations rather than our sales to customers) and colleague safety sits with our Head of Risk. Colleague welfare, training and our whistleblower programme is overseen by our Head of People. 

Our ways of working:



Dreams store

Our risks and mitigations

Finished products

Summary of our progress in 2024: Our actions have continued to improve transparency, visibility, and engagement within different parts of our supply chain. This year we have:  

  • Renewed our partnership with Verisio enabling Dreams to benefit from Verisio's extensive expertise as a trusted and established social-compliance organisation. With deep knowledge in identifying and mitigating modern slavery and forced-labour risks within supply chains, Verisio remains a key contributor to Dreams' efforts to uphold ethical and responsible practices and mitigation of risk.
  • Improved control in areas of greatest potential risk of own brand imported finished product from overseas, through our independent supplier audit programme, rating supplier factories as low, medium or high-risk. Our high-risk suppliers present the greatest human rights and slavery challenges. Focusing efforts on these suppliers and factories is a key part of deploying our modern-slavery programme effectively. Our approach should any sites be graded as high-risk or identified as having zero-tolerance non-conformance, would be to introduce immediate actions and arrange subsequent audits on an unannounced basis
  • Increased our resource presence in key sourcing countries, notably China and Vietnam. This strategic expansion has facilitated a more transparent and collaborative approach between teams responsible for the manufacture and supply of finished goods.
  • Continued our programme of supplier visits which are a vital component of Dreams' due diligence and partnership strategy. These visits play a critical role in strengthening relationships within the supply chain, understanding stakeholder perspectives on human rights risks, evaluating the effectiveness of due diligence methods, and shaping policies and strategies for both existing and prospective suppliers.

Dreams store

Looking to 2025, Dreams remains dedicated to maintaining a consistent approach to managing modern-slavery risks by establishing a unified supplier engagement for risk mitigation. As part of this initiative, Dreams endorses suppliers to adopt the SMETA 4-Pillar audit methodology for both new and renewal audits. This advanced framework continues to emphasise labour standards and health and safety while expanding its scope to include environmental performance and business ethics. By integrating these additional elements, the 4-Pillar audit provides a more comprehensive evaluation of supplier practices, offering deeper insights into their overall impact and fostering enhanced trust among stakeholders.

Dreams store
Dreams store

Goods Not For Resale (GNFR) and service providers

A large proportion of Dreams’ suppliers provide materials and goods to support our business operations. These suppliers sit across many areas such as Marketing, Media, Finance, Logistics, Property and more. Many are long-established and reputable companies meeting our business-wide needs, whilst others are closer to our individual sites and fulfil their specific local requirements.   Within our modern-slavery programme we have identified the inherent risks posed by our GNFR supplier base that historically employs a more transient, multicultural workforce. Typically, GNFR suppliers are smaller businesses providing services for building and property maintenance, vehicle maintenance and agency workers.

In 2024 we have:

  • Successfully engaged with all our high and medium risk suppliers, by assessing them on the type of services they provide, labour market they operate in and countries and regions they serve) using a Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ), designed to understand and validate their commitment to managing the modern slavery risk within their operations.  
  • Agreed remedial action plans where suppliers did not have sufficient controls or processes in place.
  • Supported suppliers to meet Dreams’ requirements within an agreed timescale.

In 2025, for GNFR suppliers, we will develop our assessment system to be part of the onboarding process and contract or agreement renewal for all GNFR suppliers regardless of their perceived risk at the point of onboarding

Our awareness training

We believe education is key to the prevention of modern slavery throughout our network. We want each of our Dreams colleagues and anyone in our supply chain to be aware of the risks of modern slavery and feel empowered to speak out if they identify any issues. In 2024:

  • We have continued to strengthen our whistleblowing programme, ensuring that all colleagues are fully informed and feel secure in raising concerns. This initiative has been instrumental in fostering a culture of continued transparency and trust across the organisation.
  • We also introduced an enhanced version of our Code of Conduct training, which has consistently been a core aspect of our ethics programme. This updated course was exceptionally well-received, reflecting our commitment to promoting ethical behaviour. Once again, we achieved a 100% completion rate, underscoring the dedication of our team to upholding our organisational values.
  • In addition, we further developed ethical negotiation skills training, positioning it as a critical competency for key roles. This training equips our colleagues to navigate complex scenarios with integrity, reinforcing our commitment to ethical decision-making.
  • On 18th October 2024, we proudly recognised Anti-Slavery Day by sharing impactful statistics and directing colleagues to our organisational statement on combating modern slavery. This effort aimed to raise awareness and empower colleagues to play an active role in addressing this critical issue.

Recruitment and employment:

Within the People Team, we have implemented robust processes to ensure the legal recruitment and onboarding of our direct employees. Additionally, we require the need for flexibility in certain areas, where temporary workers are utilised to adapt to fluctuations in demand, such as at our Head Office, distribution centres, and Factory.

To maintain high standards, we have developed a comprehensive checklist scoring system for our recruitment agencies. This system forms the basis of our continued agreement with them. Dreams have a requirement that all agencies meet the required score before using them.

The Modern Slavery checklist, which has been an integral part of our recruitment process for several years, is embedded into the onboarding process for new recruitment agencies across all business areas. This ensures all new partners meet the required standards before entering into an agreement with Dreams.

For existing recruitment agencies, we have established an annual review process. This includes redistributing the Modern Slavery checklist and reassessing their scores. We are pleased to report that all current recruitment partners consistently meet satisfactory levels across all criteria. Whether we are actively working with them or planning to in the future, our annual review for all partners will be conducted again at the end of 2025.

Colleague Wellness

Dreams store

Throughout the year, Dreams acknowledges several well-being awareness days, weeks and run a number of mental health support programs company wide. By prioritising mental health, Dreams strive to create a positive, supportive, and psychologically safe workplace for all.

In addition, to better understand Dreams’ employee experiences, Dreams conducts an annual Wellbeing and D&I survey to help identify areas for improvement and action plans.

Dreams also partner with Retail Trust, a UK-based charity, to offer colleague mental health and well-being services alongside responsible financial guidance and tools. For no charge, colleagues can access emergency non-repayable hardship grants and wellbeing counselors through Retail Trust. 

To help foster a culture of trust and open communication colleague voices are heard through regular listening groups and culture surveys.

Furthermore, Dreams operations offer colleagues access to the Dreams Safety Portal, an app that enables real-time reporting and analysis of employee health and safety risks.

Dreams store

Customer Engagement

Dreams encourages customer engagement through multiple feedback channels as part of its commitment to transparency and accountability. These channels allow customers to provide feedback about Dreams’ products, services such as pre- and post-delivery experience or our culture, including any modern-slavery issues.

We celebrate the positive customer reviews and identify areas for improvement. We investigate all matters raised that require further risk mitigation or remedial actions, acting in partnership with other stakeholders as appropriate.

Our continuous improvement

Dreams store

At Dreams, we recognise that managing the risk of modern slavery is a work in progress and there will always be more we can do.  

We will remain committed to doing the right thing and strive to create an environment where we can continually improve and take appropriate steps to tackle identified non-compliances and mitigate risks.  

During 2025, we plan to:  

  • De-risk our supply base even further by moving more suppliers from high to medium/low risk categories. 
  • Refine our modern slavery response plan and roll out across Dreams through awareness, training, and scenario planning. 
  • Continue our awareness training and education programme for all our colleagues
Dreams store

Board of Directors approval

Dreams will never knowingly enter into business with any organisation involved in slavery, forced labour or human trafficking. 

This statement is approved, on behalf of the Board of Directors of Dreams, by the Chief Executive Officer. 

Jonathan Hirst Signature

Jonathan Hirst

Chief Executive Officer



Statement published June 2025