The State of Children’s Rights and Business

Arcor: supporting and protecting children throughout the whole business

Global Benchmark 2022

Company score level:

Achiever

Company score 2022:

7.4

Sector:

Food, Beverage & Personal Care

Industry:

Food & Beverage

Country HQ:

Argentina

About Grupo Arcor S.A.

Arcor Group is a leading multinational food company based in Argentina, specialising in the production of candies, chocolates, cookies, and other food products. Founded in 1951, the company has a strong presence in more than 120 countries, and its products are known for their quality, innovation, and affordability. With a workforce of over 20,000 employees and a commitment to sustainability and social responsibility, Arcor Group has become one of the most important companies in the Latin American food industry.

About the case series

Global Child Forum knows that one of the best ways to increase your company’s positive impact on children is by learning from others. The challenges that companies face, while seemingly unique, do share much in common with one another when trying to understand how best to manage operations sustainably and with a child-first perspective. The cases in this series, based on interviews with professionals who are executing their company’s sustainability and human rights practices, provide a range of perspectives and solutions that we hope widen your thinking on what’s possible when children’s rights are put into focus.

Company Case

Arcor: supporting and protecting children throughout the whole business

We live in a world where nearly 378 million children suffer from malnutrition, and 38 million children under age 5 are overweight.[1]Furthermore, a staggering 340 million children under 5 suffer from so-called hidden hunger, meaning their diet is lacking essential vitamins and nutrients. According to UNICEF, good nutrition is vital to good health and the proper brain development required to learn in school.

Food and Beverage companies significantly impact children’s lives through their products and marketing and can play an essential role in ensuring and promoting good nutrition among young people and encouraging a healthy lifestyle. Since 1951, the Argentinian food and beverage company Arcor Group, has maintained a strong commitment to the communities in which it operates and markets its products, and children have always been an important stakeholder group. This commitment was first manifested through mainly educational programmes: since 1991 through the company’s charitable foundation – Fundación Arcor, it adopted its institutional mission “to make education a tool for equal opportunities for children”. However, as this vision of sustainability expanded, the foundation assumed a new role of guiding and supporting the company on initiatives to protect and promote children’s rights in its own industrial and commercial operations.

[1] UNICEF, https://www.unicef.org/nutrition

Children’s rights integration

As part of their overall strategy, Arcor Group integrates children’s rights into the broader framework of working toward sustainable development. The Foundation serves in an advisory function for the rest of the company, providing expert knowledge and support for initiatives by different parts of the business.

In 2015, after conducting a self-assessment of the company and its impact on children’s lives in accordance with the Children’s Rights and Business Principles, it adopted a “Policy of commitment towards children’s rights”. The policy, approved by senior management, applies across the entire company, and specifies what each business area should consider in relation to children’s rights, such as, human resources, supply chain, product development, marketing, and the environment. This approach ensures that the entire company considers the impact on children and, at the same time, works in synergy with the long-standing social investment in educational opportunities for children in the community through the Foundation’s programmes.

I think it’s important that somebody acts as the internal leader to drive an understanding of the importance of considering the impact on children throughout the business and then also ensure that action is being taken. However, responsibility concerns the whole company, not just one person,” says Javier Rodriguez, Social Investment Coordinator at Fundación Arcor.

Initiatives that promote healthy habits

Since 2016, Arcor Group has had a strategy for encouraging healthy lifestyle habits among its customers and the wider community, including a specific focus on children. The strategy is coupled with a Nutrition Committee, formed by the highest responsible within each relevant business area: sustainability; communications; public affairs; legal; and business development.

The goal of the strategy has been to improve the nutritional content of the product line and promote healthier habits among customers. The company also decided to align with both national dietary guidelines and WHO recommendations. It developed a system of “nutritional profiles” to guide product development, which set limits on salt, sugar, and fat content. By 2021 the strategy had resulted in the following:

  • 55% of products (in kg) were in in line with the nutritional profiles;
  • 97,8% of products complied with internal limits on salt content;
  • 34% of products had specific nutritional benefits (sugar alternatives, gluten-free, source of vitamins or minerals, reduced saturated fat content, fibre or Omega 9 content).

An example of product development, specifically for children, is the chocolate bar “Tortugita” sold in Brazil. Recognising that this is a treat, which should be consumed in moderation, the portion size was reduced, lowering the energy, salt, and sugar content by approximately 15%.

Simultaneously, through the initiative “Learning to enjoy life” (Aprendiendo a Disfrutar), Arcor Group has rolled out numerous activities around promoting a healthy lifestyle among children in the wider community, particularly focusing on training and supporting teachers and others who work with children on the topics of nutrition, physical activity and forming healthy relationships with others.

For Grupo Arcor, it makes a lot of sense to have an integrated approach to our impact on children. We want to go beyond ‘do no harm’ and are committed to promoting children’s rights, which also has a positive impact on the reputation and image of the company.

Javier A. Rodríguez

Coordinator, Fundación Arcor Argentina