SAN FRANCISCO - Levi Strauss & Co. (LS&CO.) today published a list of all active owned-and-operated and contract factories producing Levi's®, Dockers® and Levi Strauss Signature® branded products. The information is published in the Corporate Citizenship section of the LS&CO. corporate Web site, www.levistrauss.com.

"We believe that greater transparency within the supply chain will provide additional momentum for our efforts to improve working conditions in apparel factories worldwide," said David Love, senior vice president, Global Sourcing. "Our hope is that this level of transparency will become standard across the apparel sector, fostering greater collaboration among brands in shared factories. We believe that when brands are working together on issues of compliance with codes of conduct, factory monitoring will ultimately be more effective and less burdensome for suppliers, allowing them to focus time and resources on making improvements that benefit workers."

In 1991, LS&CO. was the first multinational company to enact a global code of conduct for suppliers. Codes of conduct are now an apparel sector norm and have significantly contributed to improved conditions for workers and the decline in issues such as child and forced labor.

"By sharing our list of suppliers publicly, we recognize the efforts of those suppliers who are meeting our code of conduct and improving factory working conditions," said Michael Kobori, vice president, Global Code of Conduct at LS&CO. "We also establish a sense of accountability that we hope will encourage factories to maintain positive working conditions and begin to foster greater factory ownership of the compliance process."

In addition to publishing its supplier list, LS&CO. updated its Web presence, making available substantial information on its responsible sourcing program. This includes company efforts to improve working conditions for people making LS&CO. products through its supplier code of conduct, strategic philanthropy and public policy advocacy. The company also published its 70-page Terms of Engagement Guidebook, a manual that defines specific factory-level practices and policies, and provides examples of code-of-conduct violations, remediation timeframes and specific steps required to address violations.

LS&CO. responsible sourcing information can be found on the Web at http://www.levistrauss.com/responsibility/toe/index.htm. LS&CO.'s factory list can be found at http://www.levistrauss.com/responsibility/toe/supplier_list.pdf.

Levi Strauss & Co.

Levi Strauss & Co.

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