SUNTORY BEVERAGE & FOOD

The Suntory Group is advancing activities with the goal of being an organization where each individual can actively participate regardless of gender. By creating an environment of healthy competitive in which each individual begins with equal opportunities and those who achieve results are able to obtain further opportunities, we aim to increase the percentage of female managers at Suntory Holdings Limited and Suntory Beverage & Food Limited within Japan to 30% by 2030. As a means of supporting the empowerment of women, we encourage changes in awareness and actions through intentional stretching opportunities.

As an external initiative, we dispatch employees who are on the verge of being promoted to management roles to outside seminars, with the goal of motivating them to take on further challenges through interactions with people from different industries. As an internal initiative, Suntory Spirits Limited (formerly Suntory Liquors Limited) has been providing Women's Leadership Training since 2021 (with Suntory Beverage & Food Limited participating since 2023), and creating opportunities to make recommendations to management with guidance from employees at the senior general manager level or above as mentors. We also provide female employees as well as management with diversity management training, and offer opportunities to learn how to manage diverse subordinates. During the period from 2019 to 2021, the same training was provided to approximately 1,400 managers in the sales, production research, staff, and marketing departments.

In regard to balancing work with life events, we are raising awareness through "Welcome Baby" seminars and post-maternity leave follow-up seminars, and we also support employees caring for children to return to work earlier by providing a safety net in the form of a baby-sitter program for employees who are unable to use daycare facilities, or by bearing part of the costs of baby-sitting services when a child is sick or in other emergencies. We are implementing measures aimed at realizing flexible work-styles such as a flextime system, establishing remote work environments, and expanding our satellite offices. In addition, we are strengthening efforts to provide management support for active participation of employees who are returning to work after childcare leave by providing the supervisors of those employees with the information they need to manage employees who are raising children. In October 2021, we also held a Diverse Leadership Forum in order to build a network between all female managers. In addition to individual growth, we also aim to accelerate promotion throughout the Group.

As a result of these various efforts, we have been fortunate enough to receive "Eruboshi" certification (Grade 3), the highest certification for a company that promotes the empowerment of women, as well as "Platinum Kurumin" certification, the highest certification for a company that supports child-rearing, from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. (*Acquired by Suntory Holdings Limited)

In addition, at overseas Group companies, where the percentage of female managers exceeds 40%, we work with the leaders in each country to promote the empowerment of women, based on our belief that the promotion of women's active engagement in professional life is a Group-wide issue. On International Women's Day (March 8), in addition to the events and seminars held in each country, we hold global events and seminars to create opportunities to think about the empowerment of women and consider diversity management on a group-wide global basis.

The Suntory Group continues to engage in LGBTQ+ activities with the aim of becoming a company where each and every employee is able to work in good health and vigor and in a manner that best suits them. In Japan, a project team was established in 2016 to bolster LGBTQ+ initiatives. To date, we have revised the definition of "spouse" in the work rules to include "same-sex partners," established consultation services for LGBTQ+ issues, prepared an LGBTQ+ handbook for those in the LGBTQ+ community and allies, and held a panel discussion event to hear from the employees to whom this applies during June, which has been dubbed Pride Month and used a period for raising awareness. These efforts have also been praised by society at large, including receiving the highest rating of "Gold" for the seventh consecutive year since 2016 under the PRIDE Index 2022, an index created by work with Pride to evaluate efforts related to LGBTQ+ and other sexual minorities within companies and organizations.

Globally, we are working to raise awareness of LGBTQ+ issues in various other countries. Beam Suntory has been particularly active, including forming groups to raise awareness of LGBTQ+ issues, and has been named the best place to work in terms of LGBTQ+ equity as a result of an investigation by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the largest LGBTQ+ promotion organization in the US.

We also hold events other business locations around the world, primarily during Pride Month in June as in Japan, to create a working environment where employees can work in a manner that best suits them without being subjected to discrimination or prejudice, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

We have held an internship for students who are intellectually disabled since 2014 to further promote their empowerment and 27 people have entered the company over the last seven years up to April 2021.In April 2018, this team opened the "Collaborative Center" in the Odaiba office, where the team's employees engage in handling mail and other tasks. This Collaborative Center receives more than 5,000 business-related inquiries and requests from all over the country each year, making it a powerful back-office asset. Similar centers were established at the Osaka office in April 2020 and the Tamachi office in March 2021, further expanding the circle of activities in order to provide operational support and implement DEI throughout the entire Suntory Group.

Suntory Group companies around the world hold events on International Day of Persons with Disabilities (December 3) to promote understanding and raise awareness of disabilities within the Group. The Collaboration Center also creates opportunities to deepen mutual understanding by providing employees with the chance to work together with the members of the Center present on that day, who teach the visiting employees about their job.

In accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights adopted by the UN Human Rights Council in 2011, the Suntory Group promotes Human Rights Due Diligence, a global standard that all countries and companies should respect. Specifically, we formulated the Group Human Rights Policy in 2019. We work to identify any risk of human rights violations occurring within our business activities and supply chain, and take measures to prevent or mitigate such risks. We disclose the details of these efforts on our website.

Companies are required to address human rights issues as part of their corporate social responsibility, and it is necessary for us to focus more than ever before on respecting human rights within our corporate activities and business operations. In the course of achieving this, it is considered important to conduct awareness-raising activities so that employees gain a better perspective on human rights, and it has become necessary to ensure that there is an active focus on respecting human rights in all efforts, from employee recruitment and selection through to human resource development.

In recognition for ensuring fair recruitment and selection procedures and autonomously and proactively promoting in-house human rights training, Suntory has been certified by a third-party committee from the Center for the Promotion of Fair Recruitment and Human Rights Education, which provides support to realize fair recruitment and selection procedures, in cooperation with the Labor Bureau, Osaka Prefecture and other administrative organizations, as well as with economic organizations, and various human rights groups.

The Suntory Group holds the "One Suntory Walk" walking event every October for all 40,000 Group employees. This event is designed to enable participants to unite in raising awareness of health and developing exercise habits, as well as to gather donates for organizations involved in sustainability activities based on the number of participants. The event website includes a bulletin board where employees from around the world can freely post photos of themselves walking with their colleagues, making this a unique event that combines the three values of health, social contribution, and fostering a sense of unity.

In 2022, the event was held for the 6th time, and 5,792 people in 30 countries around the world participated. 57,920 USD were donated to charity: water, a non-profit organization that works to provide those in developing countries with access to safe drinking water.

In order to foster a sense of unity throughout the Group, we have been holding soft volleyball tournaments since 2009 for Group employees and their families living in the Tokyo metropolitan area. While the first tournament had only 800 participants, by the 11th tournament held in 2019, attendance skyrocketed to roughly 5,000 participants. The tournaments were suspended for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but for the 12th tournament held in 2022, the scope was expanded to include eight venues nationwide. It has developed into a major event with more than 10,000 Group employees living in Japan and their families participating. Surveys are conducted following the tournament every year, and more than 90% of the participants reply that they were "satisfied."

In addition to playing in and cheering for the soft volleyball matches, a variety of other programs are available, including a Suntory Group Experience event booth for the whole family to enjoy, and volleyball lessons for children taught by members of the Suntory Sunbirds, Suntory's own volleyball team.

It has become a major event, and it is a big hit among not only employees but also their family members as an opportunity for them to truly experience One Suntory.

We were selected as a Health & Productivity Management Brand 2023 in recognition of our advanced health management through various initiatives based on our Health Management Declaration. We were also certified as an The Certified Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organizations in 2023 (White 500), and have been for seven consecutive years since 2017.

We were also commended as an Excellent Company Promoting Cancer Control in 2022 under the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's Corporate Action to Promote Cancer Control program.

In 2010, we abolished the principle of core hours under the flextime system and expanded the scope of the system to remove restrictions on time and location and enable more flexible workstyles. We also expanded the scope of the telecommuting^* system and enabled time tracking in 10-min increments. In 2020, we abolished the limit on the number of days under the telecommuting system. Approximately 90% of employees telecommute. We have also introduced a discretionary labor system for R&D departments and are working to further innovate workstyles in line with work aptitudes. In addition, we are promoting new workstyles that leverage IT, such as robotic process automation (RPA).

Leaders appointed in each department to promote work style reforms formulate specific action plans. In addition, employees actively exchange information and opinions on a range of topics by sharing knowledge on a company-wide basis using "Kaete Minahare," our workstyle reform knowledge-sharing website. This is a three-pronged initiative involving workers, upper management, and the leaders and managers in charge of promoting workstyle reforms.

We have received the grand prize in the second and third rounds of the Nikkei Smart Work Awards, conducted by Nihon Keizai Shimbun, and after winning the fourth round in 2021, we were inducted into the Nikkei Smart Work Hall of Fame, into which only companies that have won the award in consecutive years are inducted. In 2022, we were once again inducted into the Hall of Fame after winning the fifth round as well. In terms of overall evaluation, we received the highest rating of five stars for the fourth consecutive year. Under the category of Personnel Utilization Capacity, we were highly praised for our promotion of diverse workstyles, and under Market Development Capacity, we were praised for our efforts in developing our whiskey business in India.

*Telecommuting: Working outside the office, such as remotely from home

Communicating with colleagues is the foundation upon which employees display their "Yatte Minahare" spirit to the fullest. Suntory promotes flexible workstyles and values a boisterous organizational culture, which serves as a source of innovation.

To encourage face-to-face communication at the office, we have installed Shacho no Ogori Jihanki ^* ("president's treat vending machines"), an innovative vending machine service for corporations that is sure to encourage chatting and bring smiles to people's faces. We also hold a variety of events, including in-house beer gardens, full-scale bar events, new product presentations, and other participatory events, enabling people to come together and interact so that they can widen their circle of relationships beyond the boundaries of departments and age groups.

*Shacho no Ogori Jihanki: A service for corporations in which two employees can each receive one free beverage if they both simultaneously touch their employee ID cards to the vending machine scanner