Sustainability

The Group is committed to operating its business in such a way as to minimise the impact on the environment as a result of its activities, and will always aim to meet and, where practicable, improve upon relevant environmental legislative requirements and codes of practice.

In addition, the Group continues to demonstrate environmental care by carrying out professional surveys in order to identify where reasonable steps can be taken to reduce energy usage, promoting the purchase and use of materials within the business in a manner that minimises potential adverse environmental effects, such as climate change and developing waste minimisation initiatives, in order to recycle, reuse and reduce waste in a responsible way.

STREAMLINED ENERGY AND CARBON REPORTING

The Group discloses all the measured emissions sources for FY21 as required under The Companies (Directors’ Report) and Limited Liability Partnerships (Energy and Carbon Report) Regulations 2018. The methodology has been based on the principles of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, taking account of the 2015 amendment which sets out a ‘dual reporting’ methodology for the reporting of Scope 2 emissions.

In the ‘Total Footprint’ summary, purchased electricity is reported on a location-based method.

 

	kWh			CO2e tonnes (location-based)
Emission type	FY21	FY20	Var %	FY21	FY20	Var %
Scope 1: combustion	1,201,837	1,497,913	(20%)	220.9	275.4	(20%)
Scope 2: purchased energy	10,472,520	7,277,697	44%	2,223.6	1,696.7	31%
Scope 3: indirect energy use	427,860	356,357	20%	102.9	84.1	22%
Total	12,102,217	9,131,967	33%	2,547.4	2,056.2	24%

GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS INTENSITY RATIO 

Total Footprint (Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3) - CO2e tonnes	FY21	FY20	Var %
No of centres	46	46	-
Intensity ratio (tCO2e per centre)	55.4	44.7	24%

CO2E TONNES (DUAL REPORTING METHODOLOGY)

Emission type	Location-based	Market-based (supplier specific)	Var %
Scope 1: combustion	220.9	220.9	0%
Scope 2: purchased energy	2,223.6	54.1	(98%)
Scope 3: indirect energy use	102.9	102.9	0%
Total	2,547.40	377.9	(85%)

Methodology notes:

• This includes limited emissions under Scope 1 and 2 (gas & fuel used in transport; purchased electricity), except where stated, and limited emissions under Scope 3 (fuel used in personal/hire cars for business purposes)
• Energy use and emissions figures relate to our wholly UK-based operation
• Conversion factors for UK electricity (location-based methodology), gas and other emissions are those published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for 2021-22
• Conversion factors for UK electricity (market-based methodology) are published as provided by the relevant supplier, Drax Power
• Electricity and gas data for landlord centres has been estimated based on available information
• Gas data for direct supplied centres includes some supplier estimates
• Electricity usage for the Eastbourne site was estimated using a comparable operation estimation technique based on the Exeter site

Statement of exclusions:

• There are no known exclusions.

Both usage and intensity ratios were impacted by Covid-19 in both FY21 and FY20.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY ACTION

During 2021, there was a continued focus on energy efficiency. Given that the estate was closed for 38% of the year, with record trading periods upon reopening, it is difficult to assess any underlying efficiency in the year, but this continues to be a priority in 2022. As part of our commitment to environmental responsibility and addressing the impact of climate change, 100% of our directly purchased electricity was renewable in 2021 via our contract with Haven Power.

During the year various energy-saving measures were implemented, such as upgrading to energy-efficient LCD screens in one centre with calculated energy savings of 7,200 kWh, the installation of new colour-changing LED systems for overhead lane lighting at three centres, with annual calculated energy saving of 10,000 kWh per centre, and upgraded LED lighting front of house in our four refurbished centres, with annual calculated energy saving of 11,000 kWh per centre. There has been a HVAC system renewal at six different centres involving upgrades and replacement of heating and ventilation systems. Equipment upgrades have been made, including the purchase of efficient pizza ovens and burger holding cabinets to reduce the use of large commercial ovens. The Pins & Strings installation programme is now substantially complete. This latest technology in pinsetter machines offers a far more reliable bowling experience for customers and increased efficiency.

Energy-efficient installations will continue to be considered as part of the ongoing centre refurbishment cycle across all centres. When acquiring and developing new centres, energy-efficient options will always be taken into consideration.

TASK FORCE ON CLIMATE-RELATED FINANCIAL DISCLOSURES (TCFD)

The Group is not required to report against the recommendations of the TCFD until FY22, but has carried out an assessment of readiness to comply with the TCFD recommendations. This work has been completed in conjunction with a carbon consultancy company, and has generated an early stage TCFD readiness report looking at the four TCFD recommendations. This work is part of an ongoing carbon footprinting, scenario modelling, strategy and TCFD compliance project that will look at all of Scopes 1, 2 and 3 of carbon in line with the GHG Protocol, as well as the compliance requirements for the disclosure.

TCFD requires reporting against ‘Governance’, ‘Strategy’, ‘Risk Management’ and ‘Metrics and Targets’. The below work is currently being undertaken and will enable the Group to robustly report in coming years against these measures as the existing structures, measures and actions are developed as part of the detailed work being undertaken.

In line with the Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) requirements, TEG have undertaken energy efficiency and planning that will reduce their impact on the environment in the last 12 months:

• Completed the switch to 100% renewable energy contracts
• Engaged with stakeholders, such as landlords, to ensure building fabric changes are discussed with regards solar panel self-generation activities
• Completed the technological shift to low energy “Pins and Strings” equipment across the TEG estate

In partnership with Energise, TEG is currently carrying out a comprehensive project looking at:

• Producing greenhouse gas inventories of all three scopes of carbon associated with their activities
• Conducting scenario modelling to ensure actions planned will reduce the carbon impact in line with the organisation’s net zero aspirations
• Setting and adopting key metrics to target alignment towards net zero
• Ensuring robust planning is in place to complete the scenario actions to achieve these reductions
• Reviewing Risk and Opportunities associated with Carbon, Energy and Environmental operations
• Enhancing Carbon Literacy within the organisation
• Developing enhanced governance as a result of the improved understanding of risk, opportunities and impacts
• Development of a broader suite of metrics to ensure that targets and reporting are meaningful, and business led.

WASTE USAGE AND RECYCLING

As a Group, we strive to minimise the level of waste we generate and believe that the amount we generate for our business size is an acceptable level. Waste volumes and recycling rates were impacted by Covid-19 in both FY21 and FY20. An area of focus for the Group in FY21 and beyond is to increase the proportion of waste that is recycled.

	2019	2020	2021
Total waste	788	428	668
Non-recyclable waste	589	329	505
Recycled waste	199	99	163
% recycled	25.3%	23.1%	24.4%

All waste data is supplied by Suez, measured in tonnes. This excludes data from centres where the landlord manages the waste.

OUR PEOPLE

The Group could not have asked for more from our people during the year, with their continued response to COVID-19 being nothing short of outstanding. Our people are integral to achieving our business objectives and they are a key asset who deliver an exceptional experience to all our customers.

The Group strives to create an environment to help to attract, retain and develop the right people to work at every level. We have established policies for recruitment, learning and development of our people, and are committed to achieving excellence in health, safety, welfare and the protection of our employees and their working environment.

Their dedication and commitment to ensuring our ongoing success highlights the strong company culture we have in place.

CULTURES AND VALUES

Our people are at the heart of everything we do and are central to our ability to succeed. As we continue to grow, our employees’ wellbeing and happiness is key. We will continue to focus on employee engagement, to enhance our culture and deliver our long-term goals.

COMMUNICATION

Over the past two years, Tenpin has rapidly evolved and adapted the ways we communicate. Our teams spread from Plymouth to Falkirk and keeping our people informed, engaged, connected and motivated was essential.

We utilised our internal engagement portal to provide updates and information to our people, and our Centre Managers use it for shift briefings and to engage with their teams.

In addition to sharing their own news, views and successes, employees also have the ability to send private messages, share their Epic Ideas and talk to us in confidence. Our Chief Executive Officer reviews every idea and we ensure the suggestions and views of our people are taken into account.

During 2022, we will establish an internal Employee Forum, where representatives from throughout the business can attend meetings at least twice a year with Directors and Senior Leaders. This forum will enable and encourage open discussion on key business issues, policies and the working environment.

In utilising technology, we have engaged more and more of our Generation Z population, and our introduction of gamified learning has seen the highest engagement levels in the provider’s history. 

RECOGNITION

We have step changed our approach to reward and recognition to give greater recognition for our teams. By introducing a suite of new incentive and rewards schemes we have empowered individuals to take ownership of the service they give customers and link that directly to the success of the business and their own rewards. 

RECRUITMENT

A move towards digitalised recruitment and training has helped streamline the recruitment and onboarding process and engage Generation Z team members. From a recruitment perspective, the Group has an online application tracking system which supports the recruitment process from application to onboarding. Alongside this application is an online bot which is the first point of contact for applicants and provides a wide range of information to assist with common queries.

In 2021, 62.5% of all our vacancies were filled internally, which we are very proud of. The majority of these (96.5%) were promotions!

These were across the board from Customer Service Assistants moving into Supervisory roles; Deputy Managers being promoted to General Managers running their first Tenpin Centre; and Centre Management staff moving to Support Centre roles. Retaining our employees in this way shows that our development programmes work and our team are invested in continuing their careers within Tenpin.

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

The Group aims to realise the potential of our employees by supporting their career progression and promotion wherever possible. We make significant investment in the training and development of employees at all levels, which contributes to their promotion prospects.

Our new strategy and approach to learning and development bodes well for the future. We have strengthened our Learning and Development team, and introduced new Regional Coach Trainers who will focus on delivering training appropriate for our people, together with more practical management and leadership development.

We allocate dedicated hours to select and recruit sufficient people for our Centres, with training ensuring that our new starters are properly prepared and so are more likely to stay. This is proving very popular with our General Managers who believe that this makes a significant difference both to staff and to our customers.

We currently offer 21 different training courses internally, including our suite of six core compliance modules. We have 14 additional courses being added to our Training Portfolio in 2022, as well as at least two brand new Centres of Excellence (incorporating a new dedicated Management Course) and plans to introduce a Future Leaders Programme.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

Diversity and inclusion are central to our business and we continue to value the many dimensions in this area. To us, diversity and inclusion is more than policies, programmes or headcounts – we’re committed to ensuring everyone, regardless of who they are or what role they undertake in the Group, feel equally involved in and supported in all areas of the workplace. We provide experiences that help our people feel they belong, including Company Induction Days, a wealth of updates on Yapster (our internal digital communication tool) and sharing the well-deserved promotions of our fellow colleagues.

The Group’s policy on diversity is that no individual should be discriminated against on the grounds of race, colour, ethnicity, nationality, religious belief, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, age or disability, and this extends to Board appointments.

The Board recognises the benefits of diversity, including gender diversity, on the Board, although it believes that all appointments should be made on merit, whilst ensuring that there is an appropriate balance of skills and experience within the Board. The Board currently consists of 33.3% (two) females and 66.7% (four) male Board members while the total Group headcount is split as below:

 

	Female	Male	Total
Board	2	4	6
Board + Direct Reports	8	9	17
Managers	80	81	161
Staff	764	477	1,241

GENDER PAY GAP

We are confident that as we continue to progress towards a gender balanced workforce, our gender pay gap will continue to reduce.

There are a number of steps we are taking to improve our gender balance that we expect to positively impact our gender pay gap, including:

OUR PEOPLE

• Reviewing our partnerships to attract a diverse and exciting workforce
• Using our networks to share our people’s stories and ideas, celebrate differences and showcase our amazing talent
• Through the use of technology and gamification, enabling remote learning and virtual networking
• Introducing a job evaluation scheme and grading structure

OUR LEADERS

• Ensuring our people leaders feel enabled to support and develop a diverse and flexible workforce through the creation of tools, support and guidance
• We truly believe that getting the best from our people means equipping our leaders with the right skills and support to enable this

We recognise that there is still a lot more to be done, and we will continue to shape a more diverse and inclusive culture at TEG. Full details of the latest Gender Pay Gap report can be found on our website.

The Group recognises the importance of transparency when it comes to diversity and has disclosed splits in relation to employee ethnicity and age.

RETAINED INVESTORS IN PEOPLE GOLD AWARD

We are extremely proud to have been recognised once again by Investors in People as being a people-centric organisation. Our culture, values and strategic objectives have been endorsed by our employees and the assessment was a great opportunity for us to hear from our people. We’ve learnt so much from what they told us, as well as being delighted to hear that retaining, paying, and continuing to communicate to people throughout the period of furlough in 2020 and 2021 has helped to keep people genuinely in the Tenpin fold and made them feel “part of the family”.

Participation, collaboration, and teamwork are at the heart of the way that we work. Surveys and Yapster give our people an opportunity to have a say. For example, people had a chance to have an input about what they wanted to see in our Centres after re-opening in terms of Covid measures and their response accounts for many of the measures in place today. People can also challenge posts on Yapster or local ways of working and share ideas and best practice.

We also ensure that our people’s voices are heard at a local level. In Chichester, a request to wear shorts during the hot weather led to the centre trialling new uniforms that were better suited to the warm weather. In another centre, in response to the team’s feedback we trialled different brands of hot chocolate which resulted in an improved offer throughout the estate. Our people are consulted each month for their choice of Employee of the Month and the final decision about category winners is always made locally.

CUSTOMERS

Bowling is a fun, inclusive activity that appeals to all ages and encourages people to be active and enjoy social time together. In the current climate, mental health is more important than ever and we believe that tenpin bowling is a fun activity that can boost wellbeing and bring people together through competitive socialising.

Our centres provide drink and food as part of the experience and we understand the focus on diet and wellbeing. We are passionate about our food and strive to always provide the best quality food to our customers. We are focused on making progressive changes going forward to meet changing customer expectations. We continue to work with our suppliers to reduce the amount of sugar and salt in the products we use and ensure all our products are from sustainable sources and that we have a range of healthier options available. We communicate regularly with regulatory bodies, local councils and our suppliers to ensure that we have an appropriate mix of gaming machines in terms of content and quality and age appropriateness.

We engage with our customers across many communication channels as well as when they visit us in person. Social media is a particularly important point of connection with our customers. The Group currently has significant social media presence with over 133,000 Facebook followers and 10,000 Instagram followers. The recent launch of the Tenpin TikTok page during 2021 has proved incredibly popular with over 10m video views in the first month and already over 64,000 followers.

COMMUNITIES

The Group’s nominated charity continued to be Rays of Sunshine during 2021, with employees also encouraged to support charities they care about both nationally and locally in the form of events and fundraising at site level.

During the year our teams participated in sponsored bakes, coffee mornings and even donated essential items to a homeless shelter for new arrivals.

In 2022 we will be creating a Charity Committee with a selection of employees to increase the focus on supporting our communities. We will be concentrating on:

• Central Charity – building awareness of Rays of Sunshine through centrally driven fundraising initiatives
• Local Activities – building relationships in the community through Tenpin Centre led local events
• Volunteering Days – encourage our people to participate in group and individual activities

BOARD DECISION MAKING

In compliance with Section 172 of the Companies Act 2006 (‘s.172’), the Board of Directors, both individually and together, act in a way that they consider, in good faith, would be most likely to promote the success of the Company for the benefit of its stakeholders. The Board have designated Julie Sneddon, Senior Independent Non-Executive Director, as a key point of engagement with the workforce. See stakeholder engagement on page 27.

RESPECT AND DIGNITY

The Group respects and supports the dignity, wellbeing and human rights of our employees, customers, supply chain and communities in which we operate, and are committed to ensuring that everyone working throughout our operations and within our supply chain is treated with dignity and respect.

We have a zero tolerance approach to modern slavery of any kind and are committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business dealings and relationships.

Full details of both our Human Rights policy and latest Modern Slavery statement can be found at www.tegplc.co.uk

INFORMATION SECURITY

The Group and the Board take information security matters very seriously. The Board was briefed on information security three times during 2021. There have been no information security breaches during 2021 or the previous three years. The Group has a security awareness training platform in place, with various training topics released to employees bi-monthly for them to complete. The training topics range from social engineering to common threats. The Group was externally audited by IT Security company Bulletproof in January 2021 with no significant issues raised. The Group has an information security risk insurance policy in place to mitigate the risk should a breach arise.

FAIR TAX POLICY

The Group is committed to fair and transparent tax practices, and compliance with all applicable tax laws, rules and regulations, without exception. The Group aims to achieve an optimal tax position for the Group, which does not mean the lowest tax result possible in the short term, but rather the optimal tax result, considering sustainability and continuity of the positions taken over the longer term. The Group does not (and will not) enter into artificial arrangements in order to avoid taxation or to defeat the stated purpose of the tax legislation, nor does it (nor will it) undertake aggressive tax planning. Further details of the Group’s tax policy is available here