Ristone Holdings is governed by Ukrainian legislation, the norms and regulations of which regulate the spheres of activity of the holding. All enterprises of the holding adhere to international standards and business norms. In particular, the standards of environmental and social sustainability of the International Finance Corporation (IFC); responsible financial, environmental and social policy of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), other international and European standards reflected in the terms of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union.
Our declared goal of sustainable development, as one of the leaders of the agro-industrial complex of Ukraine, is implemented through the key principles of achieving production and financial stability, food security, environmental sustainability, environmental protection, the introduction of innovations, and the expansion of differentiation and scope of activity. Adherence to these principles is the foundation for the formation of corporate culture, responsibility and the basis for further achievements.
The consolidating component of Ristone Holdings is European companies. From the very beginning, we have been oriented towards European standards of business conduct, which are based on mutual responsibility and exhaustive fulfillment of the obligations assumed to financial partners, business counterparties, and consumers of the holding’s products. We understand that only together with partners (business partners, societies, NGOs) we can grow and improve within the framework of a sustainable development strategy, therefore conscientious and responsible partnership is one of our key principles in the development and implementation of projects and programs.
Ristone Holdings strictly adheres to international financial reporting standards. Since 2012, our partner has been the international association of auditing and consulting companies BDO with headquarters in Belgium, which is the fifth in the world (after the “big four”) association providing services in the field of auditing and consulting.
We make strategic decisions for the development of the holding based on the analysis and recommendations of BDO, demonstrating high indicators of success, stability and development dynamics.
Since 2019, the Riston Holdings group of companies officially became a member of the European Business Association (EBA) after receiving the corresponding certificate. The decision to join RH was made at a meeting of the Association’s board.
The European Business Association is the largest association of foreign, European and domestic businesses in Ukraine, it is the largest business community that unites more than 1,000 companies operating on the Ukrainian market that share European business principles and standards.
Product quality and safety
Ristone Holdings is a vertically integrated agro-industrial structure that covers all stages of production, processing and sale of food products: cultivation of food raw materials (cereals and oil crops, vegetables, mushrooms, meat and dairy farms), its storage (elevators, refrigerators), primary processing (flour mill), production of ready-made food products (bakeries, oil extraction plant, vegetable growing, etc.), as well as creation of a structure of wholesale and retail trade of agricultural raw materials and ready-made food products.
Stable laboratory and technological quality control of products is carried out at all stages of production. Quality and food safety management systems at the holding’s enterprises are developed and implemented on the basis of risk analysis and critical control points, part of the enterprises are already certified for compliance with the requirements of key management standards established by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO, International Organization for Standardization).
Working personnel, working conditions, man-made safety
For Ristone Holdings, our labor resources are the most important asset, healthy relations between staff and management serve as one of the main components of the successful operation of the holding’s enterprises.
By protecting the basic rights of employees, treating them fairly, ensuring safe and healthy working conditions, we thereby strengthen the loyalty of employees and retain personnel, achieve high financial and quantitative characteristics of work results and the quality of the holding’s products.
Our employees undergo training programs for professional development, labor protection and man-made safety in accordance with state standards and regulatory acts of the holding.
In order for our team and the technological chain to be in integrity and safety, not to represent a man-made threat to human health and the environment, Ristone Holdings adheres to the following control and safety rules:
- Provides regular maintenance and conducts quarterly safety inspections of all its facilities and equipment;
- Ensures compliance with sanitary-epidemiological norms and rules, access regime at those facilities where raw materials and finished products require special protection from exposure to potential harmful factors.
- Employees receive personal protective equipment at those stages of the technological chain, where there is a regulatory necessity.
- Purchases machinery and equipment that meet strict man-made safety criteria that ensure comfortable working conditions.
- Conducts various training programs for enterprise personnel on a regular basis.
- The holding implements a policy of balance of interests with hired personnel through fruitful cooperation with the All-Ukrainian trade union of workers in the food, processing industry and related industries. Conditions for the work of 21 primary trade union organizations have been created at the holding’s enterprises.
In addition to creating conditions for professional growth, ensuring working and rest conditions, stable and stimulating staff remuneration, Ristone Holdings implements a multifaceted policy of social responsibility (see the “Social Projects” section).
Prevention and elimination of environmental pollution
The active expansion of the spheres and geography of Ristone Holdings’ activity, the introduction of new technologies and production obliges us with special attention and thoroughness to implement the corporate policy of preventing potential damage to the ecology of territories – to prevent air, water and land pollution. First of all, this is achieved through the implementation of environmentally safe production technologies, methods of prevention, as well as environmental monitoring in one’s economic activity. Our goals are to preserve natural resources and their quality characteristics, to reduce waste.
As an agribusiness structure, Ristone Holdings takes the care of agricultural land, which is one of the main production resources, very seriously. We implement a crop rotation system on all our fields to prevent depletion and barrenness of land masses, accumulation of pests and soil erosion.
Agricultural enterprises of Ristone Holdings use fertilizers and plant protection products of the best quality, which have all the necessary certificates of the European standard. Our agronomists and technologists calculate the necessary dosages for the use of such products. We actively cooperate and are open to control by state environmental inspection bodies.
At the enterprises of the holding, as an integral part of the idea of zero-waste production, a program of transition to the production of coolant from alternative (filling) heat sources is being implemented. In particular, such a project was implemented at a complex for the processing of oil crops, where production waste – husks – is used as fuel. In the near future, it is planned to implement a project to build our own corporate production of pellets for boiler houses using alternative fuel.
We strive to keep the natural resources we use healthy and well-maintained. The protection and preservation of biodiversity and the ecosystem serve as an important condition for the sustainable development of Ristone Holdings.
The further activity and development of the holding involves the integration of the acquired financial, economic, technological and social experience, based on multifaceted concern for the impeccable quality of products, for labor resources, for local communities and the environment in the long term to improve the financial, social and technological reputation of Ristone Holdings.