Wickes POLITICAL

Scope note: this audit covers Wickes Group plc and its principal trading entity, Wickes Building Supplies Limited. It records only what the pages opened this session support, and where nothing was found it says so. Research date: 3 November 2026. ¹

Corporate Communications & Public Stance

Statements. No public evidence identified of any official Wickes corporate statement on the Israel-Palestine conflict, including generic calls for peace; a Wikipedia entry on Wickes contains no Israel or Palestine references, and the company’s published policy list for 2026 includes a Human Rights Policy (February 2024) and a Charity and Community Policy but no political-position policy. ^{2, 3}

Comparative silence. No public evidence identified of Wickes statements on Ukraine, Black Lives Matter or COVID that could be contrasted with silence on Palestinian civilian harm; a search for such statements returned no Wickes results, so no Double Standard comparison can be documented from retrieved sources. ⁴

Market framing. The Wickes Annual Report and Accounts 2025 (published after the full-year results of 17 March 2026) describes a UK home-improvement business, and the reviewed portions contain no Israel, Palestine, Gaza or Keter-style regional framing; the Directors’ report states that “The Group’s policy is not to make donations to political parties and no such payments have been made to either political groups or individual candidates”. ^{5, 6}

Act record. The acting entity for the policy statement above is Wickes Group plc, and the channel is the Annual Report hosted on a financial-reports mirror; the earliest and latest observation is the financial year ended 27 December 2025, and the policy status is current as of that report, but earlier years were not checked. ⁵

Operations in Occupied or Contested Territories

Territorial presence. No public evidence identified of Wickes stores, subsidiaries, dealerships or service contracts in Israel, the West Bank, East Jerusalem or the Golan; the Wikipedia history records UK operations, a 1997 sale of mainland European operations and the end of a 1997 South African joint venture, with no Israeli operations listed. ²

UN database and Special Rapporteur reporting. The OHCHR database was updated on 26 September 2025 to list 158 business enterprises from 11 countries, including the United Kingdom as a country of domicile, and the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre summary names neither Wickes nor any UK DIY retailer. ⁷

Further database coverage. The UN Geneva newsroom account of the 29 September 2025 presentation (A/HRC/60/19) reports 215 companies assessed, 158 listed, 7 removed from the 2023 list and 381 still under assessment, and names no company; the Dawn and The National reports likewise name no Wickes entity, Dawn naming Airbnb, Booking.com, Motorola Solutions and Trip Advisor, and The National names Heidelberg Materials, Steconfer, Ineco, Expedia Group, Booking Holdings and Airbnb. ^{8, 9, 10}

Albanese report A/HRC/59/23. The report “From economy of occupation to economy of genocide” was published on 2 July 2025, and a GICJ summary lists arms, surveillance, financial, construction, academic, tourism and charity actors without mentioning retail, DIY or Wickes; the primary report text was not reviewed. ^{11, 12}

Boycott history. No public evidence identified of an organised BDS or boycott campaign naming Wickes; the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre review of Gaza-related consumer boycotts names companies such as Starbucks, McDonald’s, Carrefour and Puma but not Wickes. ⁴

Act record. Absence findings are dated September 2025 (database update) and October 2025 to 2026 (news pages), and they apply to Wickes Group plc and Wickes Building Supplies Limited; the full OHCHR list and Who Profits and AFSC databases were not opened directly, so absence from those lists is not independently confirmed. ^{7, 8}

Internal Governance, Content & Retail Policies

Employee relations. No public evidence identified of reports or legal actions about Wickes HR enforcement concerning employee speech, political symbols or union activity related to Israel-Palestine; the only speech-related controversy found concerned 2023 remarks by a former COO on transgender views, which is unrelated to the region. ²

Platform and editorial policy. No public evidence identified of independent reports, academic studies or regulatory inquiries on algorithmic moderation or editorial stance related to the conflict, as Wickes operates a retail and trade business rather than a content platform. ²

Retail and supply chain. No public evidence identified of regulatory actions or public reports on Wickes labelling or sourcing of products from Israeli settlements; the Wickes responsible-sourcing page states that “Our biggest risk of modern slavery is in our supply chain”, says it will meet the ETI Base Code, and contains no statement on Israel or occupied territories. ¹³

Policy documents. Wickes lists a Human Rights Policy dated February 2024, an Anti-Slavery Policy, a Responsible Sourcing Policy, a Whistleblowing Policy and a Supplier Code of Conduct, and its 2025 modern slavery statement is on its Investors site; none of these documents’ full texts was readable, so their content on conflict-affected areas is not established here. ^{3, 14}

Brand Heritage & State Partnerships

Marketing positioning. No public evidence identified of Wickes using military heritage, defence-sector ties or state-security origins in its branding; the history on record is a 1972 UK launch with Sankey’s, a 1987 flotation, a 2000 Focus Group acquisition, sale to Travis Perkins (2004-05) [pre-2020], and demerger in 2021. ²

Institutional ties and sponsorships. No public evidence identified of accepted Israeli state honours, hosted Israeli officials, formal partnerships with Israeli state institutions, or sponsorship of “Brand Israel” campaigns; the corporate charity partners recorded are The Brain Tumour Charity (two-year partnership completed April 2025) and CALM (new two-year partnership from May 2025). ⁵

Lobbying, Advocacy, Financing & Logistics

Political lobbying. No public evidence identified of Wickes lobbying, PAC contributions or leadership roles in pressure groups on regional policy, boycotts or trade legislation; the Annual Report states a policy of no donations to political parties, and the company cites the British Retail Consortium’s Climate Action Roadmap, which is unrelated to the region. ⁵

Financial contributions. No public evidence identified of corporate donations or sponsorships to parastatal organisations, settlement groups or military-welfare funds; the Annual Report records “£417,200 fundraised and £26,600 donated in 2025” in its responsible-business section without naming Israel-related recipients. ⁵

Crisis asset mobilisation. No public evidence identified of Wickes directing resources, logistics or free services to state, military or state-aligned NGO efforts during active conflict in Israel-Palestine. ⁵

Constructive notice. No public evidence identified of political conduct on Israel-Palestine by Wickes either before or after 19 July 2024 (ICJ advisory opinion) or November 2024 (ICC warrants), so no continuation or escalation can be documented. ^{7, 5}

Settlement nexus. No public evidence identified of settlement-event sponsorship, donations to settlement entities or public endorsement of settlement enterprise by Wickes. ^{5, 7}

Corporate Structure & Primary Mission

Ownership and mandate. Wickes Group plc was demerged from Travis Perkins plc and began trading on the London Stock Exchange on 28 April 2021, with the Travis Perkins release stating the demerger lets each company’s management “pursue their own independent strategies”; no golden share or state-held mission is recorded in the pages reviewed. ^{15, 2}

Former parent. Companies House records Travis Perkins Plc as a person with significant control of Wickes Group plc from 4 September 2019 until 27 April 2021, and shows no active person with significant control since, because the register is no longer updated for companies with shares admitted to a UK regulated market. ¹⁶

Subsidiary. Wickes Group Holdings Limited has been the person with significant control of Wickes Building Supplies Limited since 27 April 2021, replacing Travis Perkins Plc, which held that role from 21 December 2016 to 27 April 2021. ¹⁷

Data anomaly. A separate Companies House record for Wickes Group Trustees Limited lists Travis Perkins Financing Company No.3 Limited as its person with significant control, notified 19 December 2019, which this audit does not treat as evidence of current ownership of the listed group. ¹⁸

10%+ holders. The largest recent notification found is JPMorgan Asset Management Holdings Inc. at 5.515078% of voting rights (notified 9 March 2026), so no holder of 10% or more was identified in the sources reviewed. ¹⁹

Shareholder information. The Wickes shareholder information page lists the registrar (MUFG Corporate Markets) and does not contain a major-shareholder table. ²⁰

Executive & Leadership Footprint

Named-entity record. The board listed on the Wickes leadership page, with appointment dates and stated affiliations, is as follows. ¹

• Christopher Rogers, Chair of the Board (appointed 23 March 2021), whose stated affiliations are Senior Independent Director of Kerry Group plc and Chair of Mitie Group plc; no pro-Israel or settlement-related affiliation is listed on the page. ¹
• David Wood, Chief Executive Officer (appointed to the board 23 March 2021, joined May 2019), whose stated affiliation is Non-executive Chair of Green Sheep Group Ltd; no advocacy-group role is listed. ¹
• Mark George, Chief Financial Officer (board 29 July 2022), who chairs the board of a 51%-owned subsidiary named in the page as Wickes Solar in one place and Solar Fast in another; no advocacy-group role is listed. ¹
• Octavia Morley, Senior Independent Non-executive Director (from 1 June 2026), with stated roles at Currys plc, Marston’s PLC and Banner Group Limited; no advocacy-group role is listed. ¹
• Sonita Alleyne, Independent Non-executive Director (from 23 March 2021), with stated roles as Master of Jesus College, Cambridge and Non-executive Director of Young & Co.’s Brewery PLC; no advocacy-group role is listed. ¹
• Mark Clare, Independent Non-executive Director (from 23 March 2021), with stated roles at Drax Group plc and Hilton Food Group plc; no advocacy-group role is listed. ¹
• Mike Iddon, Independent Non-executive Director (from 23 March 2021), with no affiliations listed. ¹

Personal philanthropy and financing. No public evidence identified of personal donations, family-foundation grants or fundraising by Wickes directors or executives for FIDF, JNF, settlement bodies or military-welfare funds; per-name searches on each director for these topics were not completed within the action limit, so this finding rests on the company-stated affiliations only. ¹

Public advocacy and statements. No public evidence identified of public statements, op-eds or social-media activity by Wickes leadership on the conflict. ¹

Board memberships and affiliations. No public evidence identified of board seats or advisory roles in geopolitical pressure groups, state-aligned academic institutions or lobbying organisations in the leadership page’s stated affiliations. ¹

Group attribution. No parent or controlling principal presently exists: the former parent Travis Perkins plc ceased to control Wickes on 27 April 2021, and no 10%+ holder was identified. ^{16, 19}