Close collaboration with our partners can help us respond quickly to evolving consumer expectations and drive sustainable growth in a dynamic market.

And by fostering mutually beneficial relationships with carefully chosen partners who share our values and high standards, we can take positive steps towards realising our purpose and vision.

To help meet these ambitions, all our spending activities have been unified through a single Procurement team, sitting within our Global Supply Chain function. The team manages a diverse spend portfolio across five main supply categories – leaf, non-tobacco materials, next generation products, logistics and indirect – seeking to bring broader value to the business, from seed to sale. This also puts us in a stronger position to engage more consistently with our supply chain and other key partners.

Our industry is a thriving ecosystem of businesses innovating in diverse areas from flavours and other ingredients to devices and packaging, and on to marketing and sales. We know that we can better harness this ecosystem by operating in a collaborative, innovative and technology-enabled way.

With this in mind, we’ve launched SRM Connect – Imperial Brands’ global Supplier Relationship Management programme. SRM Connect will transform our approach to how we work with our strategic suppliers.

At the centre of SRM Connect is a framework that provides the tools, governance, data and rewards to build strong, consistent and sustainable partnerships, globally, across all areas of spend.

The programme is founded on six pillars that place an emphasis on responsibility, quality, service, innovation, agility, and a shared challenger mindset. 

Our development of this new programme represents a positive shift in our approach that allows us to realise our challenger ambitions and connect with our partners in a more focused and value-driven way.

I’m grateful to our existing partners for their commitment and contribution to our success to date – and welcome potential new partners to join us on our journey to creating a healthier future.

Petar Stjepanovic
Chief Procurement Officer