Online retailer Boohoo to move to new auditing model for suppliers

(Reuters) - Online fashion retailer Boohoo said on Friday it would move all of its suppliers to a new auditing model over the next 12 months in its latest effort to address failings brought to light in media reports a year ago.

The London-listed company commissioned a review last July following British media reports about factory working conditions and low pay in Leicester in central England.

The Sunday Times newspaper reported at the time that workers in a factory there were making clothes destined for Boohoo were being paid as little as 3.50 pounds ($4.89) an hour.

Boohoo in March announced it was consolidating its list of British suppliers after accepting recommendations of the review.

"Suppliers are visited more frequently, sub-contracting has been removed, products can only be purchased from our approved supplier list; mandatory whistle-blower helplines have been installed at every supplier," Boohoo said on Friday.

($1 = 0.7156 pounds)

(Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely)