Switching to an employee-owned model can help make businesses more profitable, competitive and sustainable while sharing the benefits of success with the people who helped to make it happen. That’s the message from Jo Ritzema, Managing Director of WCF, a leading UK part employee-owned company, after research revealed that the number of businesses in which employees had a stake had grown by 37% in 12 months. She tells us more about the benefits of an employee-owned business model.
WCF operates in the leisure, retail and logistics sectors and Managing Director, Jo Ritzema, said an employee-owned business model allowed firms to focus on long-term success rather than short-term profitability targets, built resilience and encouraged a loyal, engaged workforce with shared responsibility and a strong sense of corporate social responsibility.
According to the Employee Ownership Association, the number of employee-owned businesses in the UK rose to 1,418 in the 12 months to June 2023, with 332 new employee-owned businesses being established during 2022.
Ritzema, who leads a team of nearly 400 people at WCF, said: “Being an employee-owned business drives productivity and innovation because the team is invested emotionally and financially in the long-term success of the company.
“At WCF, it has enabled us to grow the business steadily without the pressure to take risks which would benefit stakeholders only in the short-term. We are able to make decisions which put the interests of our employee owners first, with the ultimate aim of handing over the business to the next generation in a stronger financial position than when we inherited it, so future employee owners can benefit from its continued existence.
“By not having to worry about the business being sold, we can ensure that the WCF legacy, history and culture is passed on.”
Employee ownership is where all employees have a ‘significant and meaningful’ stake in a business. Employee owners generally have both a financial stake in the business, for example, by owning shares or receiving some element of profit share, and a meaningful say in how it’s run.
WCF, which has its head office in Brampton, Cumbria, UK, offers a range of benefits to its employee owners and shares financial success across the business via an annual Employee Ownership Dividend payment and the issue of free shares if targets are reached. Employee owners are also encouraged and helped financially to own WCF shares directly.
The diverse and dynamic company is based in more than 30 locations across the UK in industries including home shopping, oil distribution, pet and equestrian retail stores, camping and glamping sites and e-commerce. It was established in 1911. Ritzema credits the company’s long-term resilience to its part employee-owned structure, which promotes autonomy and responsibility at every level alongside a diversity of income streams.
“Being employee-owned empowers the team with a real sense of purpose and collective responsibility for the long-term future of WCF,” she said. “We devolve a huge amount of autonomy and trust to our team, with the general managers in each division running the business as if it were their own.
“We operate a diverse range of businesses across multiple sites at WCF, from working on the shopfloor in retail to managing campsites, and our shared values and culture ensure that whatever our role in the company, we are all working towards a common goal.”
Ritzema said WCF’s ability to integrate new employees into its employee-owned structure has been fundamental to the continued success of the business.
“As a company which is continually expanding both organically and through acquisition, while at the same time operating in different sectors, having clear communication across our entire team at every level is crucial so everyone understands what it means to be an employee owner,” said Ritzema. “Our aim is to get our new employee owners on board right from the start so they feel empowered and excited to be part of it.”
WCF recently acquired North Yorkshire-based mail order clothing firm, Bella di Notte, which saw nearly 40 new employees join the WCF team. The acquisition complements WCF’s existing national mail-order clothing brands which include Country Collection, James Meade and The Classic Boutique, with the firm continuing to run as an independent business under WCF’s portfolio of companies, and key decisions being taken from within the existing Bella di Notte team.
Ritzema said: “The best employee-owned companies put their employees at the heart of their businesses, championing employee engagement and enabling employee owners to have a meaningful say in how the business is run and grown. Listening to our employee voice, responding meaningfully and being influenced by team responses is absolutely vital to our business as it means we receive a variety of feedback from across the company.”
At WCF, employee owners share their views and ideas through an employee voice forum where representatives from each part of the business gather suggestions and common issues from the team. These are either actioned by the group directly or fed back to the local management teams who agree on responses and actions.
“It’s important that everyone has an opportunity to share their ideas for improvement in the knowledge that they have a clear communication channel, and importantly, know that their opinion matters,” said Ritzema.
“Because our employees are stakeholders in the company, it encourages good business practices as they have a real long-term investment in both their own roles and the wider business, which is great for staff retention and innovation. It also drives the business forward because it leads to diversity of thinking, encourages a growth mindset and develops resilience and creative thinking.”
Ritzema said WCF’s people-focused ethos also naturally fostered a strong sense of corporate social responsibility: “By taking the lead from our team, we are able to support organisations and charities throughout the UK which are important to our team on a personal level so they can make a difference in their own communities. Ultimately, we want working for WCF to be more than just a job for our employees, we want them to feel part of something bigger which is here for now and for the future.”
Ritzema is a non-executive director of the Employee Ownership Association, which champions, supports and provides insight for more than 700 members across the UK. Its most recent research into UK employee-owned businesses was created in collaboration with the White Rose Centre for Employee Ownership.