illycaffé named as a 2015 world's most ethical company by the ethisphere institute for 3rd year

Worldwide Leader in Sustainable Coffee Earns Honor for Third Consecutive Year.

New York – March 9, 2015 – Illycaffé SpA, among the foremost global leaders in sustainable coffee, with over 80 years of industry expertise and Official Coffee Partner Expo 2015 Milano, announced today that it has been recognized by the Ethisphere Institute, the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, as a 2015 World’s Most Ethical Company®.

The World’s Most Ethical Companies designation recognizes those organizations that have had a material impact on the way business is conducted by fostering a culture of ethics and transparency at every level of the company.

Being a third-year honoree underscores illy’s commitment to leading ethical business standards and practices ensuring long-term value to key stakeholders including customers, employees, suppliers, regulators and investors. Illy is one of only two companies in the coffee industry this year.

“Receiving this award from The Ethisphere Institute exemplifies our company’s effort to pursuing the highest ethical standards, which has been at the foundation of illycaffé since its establishment over 80 years ago by my grandfather,” said Andrea Illy, Chairman and CEO, illycaffé SpA. “This award would not be possible without the people who help define and drive our organization, from our growers, to our colleagues and our customers.  We’re deeply rooted in a commitment to caring for our extended family, who share and live our values, every day."

“The World’s Most Ethical Companies embrace the correlation between ethical business practice and improved company performance. These companies use ethics as a means to further define their industry leadership and understand that creating an ethical culture and earning the World’s Most Ethical Companies recognition involves more than just an outward facing message or a handful of senior executives saying the right thing,” said Ethisphere’s Chief Executive Officer, Timothy Erblich. “Earning this recognition involves the collective action of a global workforce from the top down. We congratulate everyone at illy for this extraordinary achievement.”

The World's Most Ethical Company assessment is based upon the Ethisphere Institute’s Ethics Quotient™ (EQ) framework developed over years of research to provide a means to assess an organization’s performance in an objective, consistent and standardized way. The information collected provides a comprehensive sampling of definitive criteria of core competencies, rather than all aspects of corporate governance, risk, sustainability, compliance and ethics. The EQ framework and methodology is determined, vetted and refined by the expert advice and insights gleaned from Ethisphere’s network of thought leaders and from the World’s Most Ethical Company Methodology Advisory Panel.

Scores are generated in five key categories: ethics and compliance program (35%), corporate citizenship and responsibility (20%), culture of ethics (20%), governance (15%) and leadership, innovation and reputation (10%).

The full list of the 2015 World's Most Ethical Companies can be found at http://ethisphere.com/worlds-most-ethical/wme-honorees/.

Senior executives of honorees contribute high-level insights and best practices to the well-regarded World’s Most Ethical Companies Executive Briefing (download Volume 2 here). Additional insights gleaned from the World’s Most Ethical Companies will be released in a series of whitepapers and infographics over the coming months (download the 2014 Insights). Organizations interested in how they compare to the World’s Most Ethical Companies are invited to learn more about benchmarking services.


About illycaffé
Based in Trieste, Italy, illycaffé produces and markets a unique blend of coffee under a single brand. Illy buys green Arabica coffee of the highest quality directly from the growers through partnerships based on the mutual creation of value. Illy considers respect for the environment and people that nurture coffee a fundamental part of doing business -- in evidence every day for 20 years across Central America, South America, India and Africa. It is expressed through Università del Caffè ("University of Coffee"), which provides hands-on instruction at no cost to coffee growers who meet its quality standards. And it is recognized by independent arbiters like DNV (Det Norske Veritas), which in 2011 conferred its first-ever global Responsible Supply Chain Process Certification to illy in recognition of sustainability in every aspect of its coffee sourcing, particularly the ethical, long-term direct relationships with coffee growers. More than six million cups of illy coffee are enjoyed every day in more than140 countries. Visit www.illy.com to learn more.

About the Ethisphere Institute
The Ethisphere® Institute is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that fuel corporate character, marketplace trust and business success. Ethisphere has deep expertise in measuring and defining core ethics standards using data-driven insights that help companies enhance corporate character. Ethisphere honors superior achievement through its World’s Most Ethical Companies® recognition program, provides a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA) and showcases trends and best practices in ethics with the publication of Ethisphere Magazine and The World’s Most Ethical Companies Executive Briefing. Ethisphere is also the leading provider of independent verification of corporate ethics and compliance programs. More information about Ethisphere can be found at: ethisphere.com.


Media Contacts
360 Public Relations
Lauren von Glahn
212.729.5833
lvglahn@360pr.com

Ethisphere Media Contact
Clea Nabozny
480.397.2658
Clea.Nabozny@ethisphere.com