{"id":18053,"date":"2019-05-15T16:33:17","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T15:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=18053"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:56:29","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:56:29","slug":"richer-sounds-joins-employee-owned-firms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=18053","title":{"rendered":"Finding a better way"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hi-fi and TV retail chain Richer Sounds has joined a growing number of companies that are giving their employees a stake in the firms they work for.<\/p>\n

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This week, Richer Sounds founder Julian Richer announced that he would be transferring a 60 per cent stake in his company \u00e2\u20ac\u201c said to be worth \u00c2\u01413.5m \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to an employee ownership trust. Each of the retailer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 531 employees, excluding executive directors, will also as part of the announcement receive a bonus of \u00c2\u01411,000 for each year they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve worked \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the average bonus will be worth \u00c2\u01418,000.<\/p>\n

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Richer, whose company has built a reputation for quality customer service, has long been an advocate for treating staff well \u00e2\u20ac\u201c he has rejected the use of zero-hours contracts, and is one of the few companies whose pay gap favours women. Employee perks include the use of 12 company-owned holiday homes in cities like Barcelona and Paris, with 70 per cent of staff using at least one property each year.<\/p>\n

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Richer, who set out his business philosophy in a 2001 management book, The Richer Way<\/em>, told the BBC<\/a>, “I’ve been running my business for 40 years and the overriding thing I’ve learned is that it’s all about the people. If you treat your people right, then they are going to be happier, give a better service, stay with you, they are not going to steal.”<\/p>\n

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According to the Employee Ownership Association<\/a> (EOA) 300 businesses have adopted the employee ownership model, covering about 200,000 employee owners. Such businesses are growing at a rate of 10 per cent each year \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with growth rapidly accelerating since 2014.<\/p>\n

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John-Lewis, which runs department stores and the supermarket chain Waitrose, is the largest company owned by its more than 80,000 employees \u00e2\u20ac\u201c owner John Spedan Lewis handed over his company to workers nearly a century ago in 1929.<\/p>\n

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Other businesses in recent years that have embraced the employee ownership model include Riverford Organic Farmers and Aardman, an animation studio in Bristol whose credits include Wallace & Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Morph.<\/p>\n

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Both companies have transferred a 75 per cent stake to their employees, who will be awarded a share of the profits. At Riverford Organic Farmers, for example, its 650 staff will share 10 per cent of annual profits generated by a \u00c2\u014160m turnover.<\/p>\n

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Shadow chancellor John McDonnell, who last year met with Julian Richer to discuss concerns over rising inequality, hailed Richer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision to hand his company over to workers.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bGreat commitment by Julian Richer to his workforce,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 McDonnell tweeted<\/a>. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bHe has used his income over the years without seeking any publicity to quietly fund causes that many others would not touch. I salute him for the role he continues to play on social justice issues.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner likewise praised Julian Richer.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMore companies should follow the example set by Julian Richer \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it is no coincidence that Richer Sounds offers great customer service, as the workforce feel they have a significant stake in the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s continuing success,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is an indictment of other large corporates where the top executives pocket fat salaries and eye-watering pensions, while holding down the wages and salaries of the workers who contribute so much to a company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s success,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bA future Labour government should look\u00c2\u00a0 at Julian Richer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s social justice agenda and\u00c2\u00a0 examine how it could\u00c2\u00a0 be used to break down the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098them and us\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 culture that bedevils so much of UK industry and commerce.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Pic: Richer Sounds<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi-fi and TV retail chain Richer Sounds has joined a growing number of companies that are giving their employees a stake in the firms they work for.   This week, Richer Sounds founder Julian Richer announced that he would be transferring a 60 per cent stake in his company \u00e2\u20ac\u201c said to be worth \u00c2\u01413.5m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18054,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[1176,1175],"wps_subtitle":"There can be such a thing as a fair job \u00e2\u20ac\u201c as UniteLive finds out","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18053"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18053"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25284,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18053\/revisions\/25284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}