How to become a supplier
These principles apply across the entire value chain. Regardless of location, all suppliers are required to uphold these standards and contribute to a responsible and future ready supply chain.
Suppliers must operate with zero tolerance for bribery, corruption, fraud, or any form of unethical behavior. Compliance with competition and antitrust laws is mandatory, as is the protection of confidential information.
Suppliers must respect internationally recognized human rights and prohibit child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking. They must uphold freedom of association and collective bargaining, provide fair working conditions and wages, maintain reasonable working hours, and ensure safe and healthy workplaces, including proper control of hazardous substances.
Suppliers must implement adequate occupational health and safety systems to prevent workplace accidents and occupational illnesses, with particular attention to high risk activities and the handling of hazardous materials.
Exide expects suppliers to actively manage and reduce environmental impact by complying with environmental laws and permits, preventing pollution of air, water, and soil, and ensuring proper management of waste and hazardous materials. Suppliers are expected to improve energy efficiency, reduce emissions, and use natural resources responsibly, including water. Supporting circular economy principles is strongly encouraged. For suppliers of critical raw materials, additional expectations apply. These include compliance with Exide’s Responsible Sourcing Policy for Battery Materials, alignment with conflict minerals and due diligence requirements, and transparency on material origin, including recycled content where applicable.
To maintain a healthy and compliant value chain, Exide applies a structured supplier due diligence process. This may include supplier self assessments, ESG and product compliance questionnaires, risk based evaluations, and on site or remote audits where applicable. Suppliers are expected to fully cooperate, address identified gaps through corrective action plans, and support ongoing monitoring and improvement.
Exide is committed to transparency and ethical conduct. Suppliers and their employees are encouraged to report suspected misconduct, human rights concerns, or health, safety, and environmental violations. Reports can be submitted through the Exide Compliance Program (Whistleblowing Channel) and are handled confidentially and without retaliation.
Exide aims to maintain professional, transparent, and fair relationships with all suppliers. This includes clear contractual terms, responsible payment practices, open communication, and constructive performance feedback. Whenever possible, Exide pursues long term collaboration to strengthen mutual value creation and support continuous improvement.
How to Start the Supplier Onboarding Process
To be approved as an Exide supplier, companies must comply with the Exide Supplier Quality Manual and the Exide Supplier Code of Conduct. Supplier selection follows a defined tendering and evaluation process that assesses a company’s ability to meet Exide’s business requirements. These requirements include financial stability, competitiveness, continuity of supply, sustainability focus, and the implementation of certified management systems such as Quality, Environmental, Occupational Health and Safety, and Energy Management Systems.
Approval as an Exide supplier is a prerequisite for collaboration but does not constitute approval of any specific product or service. The level of detail, documentation, and next steps will be communicated by the supplier’s regular Exide contact, based on the supplier category.
For suppliers of direct materials, the Supplier Part Approval Process (PAP) is the key validation process within Exide and supports final customer requirements. PAP is primarily based on PPAP principles, and the relevant documentation must be requested from the Exide Supplier Quality contact at the appropriate stage.
Throughout the product lifecycle, any planned changes to the product, manufacturing process, or production location must be communicated in advance through a Supplier Change Request (SCR), in line with the Supplier Manual. All changes are subject to Exide’s approval, and the current SCR template can be obtained from the Exide Supplier Quality contact.
Companies interested in becoming an Exide supplier should ensure they can meet the requirements outlined above, prepare relevant company and sustainability information, and submit their interest through the Exide supplier contact or sourcing channel ([email protected]). Procurement teams review requests based on business needs, technical capabilities, and ESG and compliance alignment.
