DIVERSITY
The Group recognises the benefits of a diverse Board and workforce and is committed to building a culture that reflects a broad range of backgrounds and perspectives. Our Group Diversity Policy requires that all appointments, including recruitments and internal promotions, are based on merit, qualification and abilities, and are not influenced or affected by race, colour, nationality, religion or belief, gender, marital status or civil partnership, family status, pregnancy or maternity, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, disability or age. The policy applies at all levels across the Group.
The Committee acknowledges that the Gender breakdown current senior management team, its direct reports and immediate succession pipeline lack ethnic diversity and, as a result, meaningful targets cannot yet be set. Over the longer term, this is being addressed through recruitment, graduate programmes and targeted external hiring. The Group promotes inclusion through its Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (‘ED&I’) Committee and is a signatory to the Race at Work Charter.
Following the introduction of a new HR system, ethnicity data has now been captured during the year for over 75 per cent of the workforce, enabling voluntary ethnicity pay gap reporting during the 2026/27 financial year and future compliance with mandatory requirements. Work is also underway to prepare for future disability pay gap reporting.
The gender profile of the workforce is presented in the charts on the right. While overall representation has remained broadly stable, the Group continues to focus on improving gender balance through flexible working, enhanced maternity benefits and targeted development and mentoring initiatives. We have also explained in the Strategic Report various further measures we are undertaking to encourage diversity, which apply across the Group at all levels.
Details of Board and executive management diversity are set out at the end of this report in accordance with Listing Rule requirements. The Listing Rules also require that companies explain where they do not meet the following targets:
- At least 40 per cent of the Board are women.
- At least one senior Board position (Chair, Chief Executive, Senior Independent Director, Chief Financial Officer) is a woman.
- At least one Board member is from an ethnic minority background.
Cranswick does not meet the target relating to women on the Board (33 per cent of the Board are women). The Nomination Committee considers that diversity can
strengthen the Board and that it is important that the Board is not made up exclusively of like-minded individuals with similar backgrounds and recognises there is more to do. While management appointments will continue to be made on the basis of merit, without the adoption of specific diversity targets, the Group recognises the potential benefits of a more diverse management and has a policy of increasing diversity at all levels.
The Board remains mindful of the need to promote wider forms of diversity when considering future appointments to the Board and Senior Management.
Successful delivery of the Group’s strategy and planned growth depends on the recruitment and retention of a motivated and skilled workforce in a competitive and mobile labour market. The Board recognises that broadening diversity to ensure that our workforce is more reflective of society maximises our available talent pool and the attractiveness of a career with the Group both at a senior level and more generally.
Our Gender Pay Gap report's can be found below:
