In a bizarre move, British pharmaceuticals and beauty products group Alliance Boots has withdrawn from the Ethical Trading Initiative.

The ETI is a retail industry-recognized commitment to ethical trading standards designed to ban suppliers from using child or forced labour.

There is no press release on the Boots website explaining the move. The company's 2007 corporate social responsibility report made it clear that the company was working to expand its supplier reviews in accordance with ETI standards. The report that came out a year later did not mention the ETI at all.

Boots, previously a FTSE 100 company, was bought by private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts in April 2007. Union groups and campaigners are suggesting that the withdrawal from the ETI commitment has been driven by its new owners, a suggestion that Boots has apparently denied. Earlier this month KKR posted a $1.19bn (£722m) loss for 2008.