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Kappa

Since the early 1980s Kappa has manufactured, marketed and sold a wide range of athletic apparel and footwear for sport and leisure purposes.

In 1994, the company was consolidated into the BasicNet Group that includes brandnames Kappa, Robe di Kappa and Jesus Jeans. Based in Turin, Italy, the BasicNet Group operates by controlling marketing, research and development, finance and IT services from headquarters, while conducting its sourcing through the LF Basic Group, a joint venture with Li & Fung, a Hong-Kong based trading company. Distribution of products is handled through 38 licensees, covering 83 countries.

Through this operational web, Kappa has captured a fair share of the global sportswear market, reporting revenues of US$ 144,473,000 and pre-tax profits of US$ 7,568,000 in 2002. Kappa has invested heavily in sponsorship of sport, especially football.

Through the LF Basic Group, Kappa's production is completely outsourced to suppliers in a number of countries, including Taiwan, India, Thailand, China, Viet Nam, Indonesia, Mauritius, Turkey, and Romania. The LF Basic Group has adopted and is responsible for implementing a Compliance Programme for the Code of Conduct. This code includes provisions on child labour, forced labour, disciplinary practices, discrimination, health and safety, wages, working hours, freedom of association, and environmental protection. It states that all workers should be familiar with the code.

although the LF Basic Group code of conduct includes provisions for inspections and corrective action plans where violations are found, no proof of its implementation has been provided so far. Kappa has been the target of a campaign in Italy and in the UK to ask the company to withdraw from Burma. Workers in Chinese and Turkish workplaces producing for Kappa reported:

  1. Being under threat of dismissal if they participate in trade union activities.

  2. Forced overtime. Chinese workers work up to eight hours of overtime during peak season without being paid the legal overtime premium.

  3. Wages being withheld to prevent them resigning during peak periods.

  4. Not knowing about the existence of a Kappa Code of Conduct on labour practices.

Kappa appears to have invested in developing an elaborate Compliance Programme. It needs, however, to ensure that this is genuinely being implemented and is not being undermined by its purchasing practices.
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Read these reports! They have detailed information on Kappa.
Offside!

Oxfam publishes report on labour rights and sportswear production in Asia



 May 2006, The Clean Clothes Campaign welcomes the report brought out by Oxfam on labour rights and sportswear production in Asia, “Offside!”. The report concludes that sportswear companies are failing to ensure that workers making their products have the right to freedom of association. Although some companies are involved with positive initiatives which have led to improved conditions in some factories, still their overall approach to trade union rights has been inconsistent and at times contradictory.

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How are they doing? Clean Clothes Campaign update on progress in the sportswear industry on workers' rights for Turin 2006.

Jan 2006 - From the 10th to 26th February 2006, the Olympic Winter Games will take place in Turin, Italy. Two years ago, to coincide with the Athens Olympic games, an international alliance of trades unions, labour rights groups and NGOs came together under the banner of the Play Fair Alliance to campaign for the Olympic ideals of respect, dignity and fair play to be respected in the global sportswear industry. The Olympic Winter Games mark the halfway point between the Olympic Games in Athens and the Olympic Games in Beijing, and so it is time to take stock of the steps made by the companies and organisations highlighted.

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Clean Clothes Campaign - March 2004

The Play Fair at the Olympics Campaign: an evaluation of the company responses

June 2005, The Play Fair at the Olympics Campaign has urged 'sportswear companies and the International Olympic Committee to bring about an industry-wide solution to the abuse and exploitation of workers in global sportswear supply chains'. Toward this aim, seven companies - Asics, Fila, Kappa , Lotto, Mizuno, Puma, and Umbro - were highlighted during the international public campaign.
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