Cerealto Siro Foods joins global inititative to promote disability inclusion in business

• The Valuable 500, launched at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Summit in Davos, is an initiative that strives to position disability equally on the global business leadership agenda

Cerealto Siro Foods, a global food manufacturer resulting from the merger of Grupo Siro and Cerealto, has become the first company in Spain to join The Valuable 500 – and one of the first companies to support it globally.

The Valuable 500, an initiative launched at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Summit in Davos this year, calls on global business leaders to guarantee disability inclusion in their organisations.

Cerealt Siro Foods has committed to place this topic at the top of its business agenda in 2019, and to generate awareness about the value of people with disability.

“We are very proud to support The Valuable 500. The integration of people with disabilities into our workforce is a guiding principle in our organisation. They are an example of tenacity, self-improvement and enormous commitment, and they teach us every single day that nothing is impossible”, said Juan Manuel González Serna, President of Cerealto Siro Foods.

Currently, more than 500 of Cerealto’s employees in Spain have some form of disability, while 12% of the company’s global workforce, composed of more than 5,000 employees, consists of people who come from groups with barriers to work.

“My wife Lucía Urbán and I started this inclusion journey 28 years ago. Today, we reinforce our commitment to promoting high quality job opportunities for these groups and to ensure their inclusion in society”, added Juan Manuel.

Cerealto Siro Foods is one of the first companies to reach Leadership status as a Disability Confident Employer in the United Kingdom, a scheme promoted by the British Department for Work and Pensions to ensure fair consideration for disabled job applicants and the implementation of measures to retain them for their skills and talent. The company has supported the initiative’s internationalisation and has now achieved Level One status for all its sites, including work centres in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Mexico.

In line with its commitment, the company recently conducted a digital diagnosis with Purple and adapted its website to make it accessible for people with visual or auditive impairment.

Caroline Casey, founder of The Valuable 500, commented:

“It’s wonderful to have Cerealto Siro Foods on board as the first global company in Spain to sign up to The Valuable 500- and one of the first to support it internationally, paving the way for other global businesses, and businesses in the food industry, to become more inclusive.

Cerealto’s disability initiatives thus far have been monumental, so we look forward to working with them as they strive to become even more diverse and call on other businesses to follow in ending a la carte inclusion.”

Along with their friends, families and communities, the one billion disabled people worldwide also hold a disposable annual income of $8 trillion a year, equating to an opportunity that business cannot afford to ignore. Of those one billion, 80% of disabilities are acquired later life, and our ageing global population means the prevalence of disability is on the rise.

Founder of #valuable Caroline Casey launched The Valuable 500 at DAVOS in January, with the support of global business leaders, including former CEO of Unilever Paul Polman, Bloomberg Chairman Peter T Grauer and Procter & Gamble Group President, North America, Caroline Tastad.

This was the first time the World Economic Forum has ever included disability on the main stage at DAVOS, with the support of global leaders.

#valuable is a catalyst for an inclusion revolution that exists to position disability equally on the global business leadership agenda. It is spearheaded by award-winning activist, social entrepreneur and Binc founder Caroline Casey, who is registered blind.

To apply to be a Valuable 500 business, please visit thevaluable500.com.

#valuable – it’s everyone’s business.