An Employee Ownership Case Study: Howarth of London


You may recall that a few weeks ago we brought you news that guitarguitar was moving to a model of employee ownership.

Employee ownership is where all employees have a ‘significant and meaningful’ stake in a business. This means employees have both a financial stake in the business (eg. by owning shares), and a say in how it’s run, known as ‘employee engagement’.

As part of that article we also touched on the fact that woodwind specialist Howarth of London has already embarked on a similar journey and we are pleased to be able to bring you an update from them on their progress.

Howarth’s is celebrating the end of its first-year trading as an Employee Ownership Trust and is marking this milestone by rewarding all qualifying staff with a tax-free bonus from profits generated during the last twelve months.

Howarth was sold to the Employee Ownership Trust one year ago by its current Managing Director Jeremy Walsworth as part of his plans to prepare the company for his eventual retirement. Jeremy wanted to guarantee that the company could continue trading as it does now, ensuring that all the staff continue to feel secure in their jobs rather than face uncertainty and changes often brought about with any change of ownership.

The EOT’s Board of Directors, comprising of members of the senior management team, ensure that the day-to-day operations continue as usual for staff and customers whilst the structure of the Trust offers all employees the potential to become future members of the board.

After two difficult years trading during the COVID pandemic, Howarth’s business has seen a positive turnaround along with a continued increase in sales. All of Howarth’s employees have made sacrifices during the past two years to ensure that the business survived the tough trading period during Covid and because of that hard work and dedication, the company is now able to say thank you and reward that loyalty.

www.howarthlondon.com

 


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