We are delighted to announce that UKClimbing Limited, the company behind UKClimbing, UKHillwalking, Rockfax print and Rockfax Digital, has become an Employee Ownership Trust. Alan James, Managing Director of UKClimbing Ltd throughout its long progress from humble beginnings to today's thriving business, explains the thinking behind the change to the new model.
Wow. Really interesting.
Well done Alan, and good luck to everyone at UKC/Rockfax for the future.
Obviously I’m biased, but thanks Niff (aka. Alan).
It’s been an honour working for you over the last 9 years and it’ll be an honour working with you over the next however many.
Brilliant Niff, really good effort to keep UKC / UKH moving with - infront of the times; all guidebooks better because of Rockfax.
Congratulations - this is something which I have just done with my company. EOTs are a great thing.
I remember the black and white Dorset book. Groundbreaking at the time compared to everything else.
A very interesting read - well done Alan and all the UKC/RF team, it sounds like a great way forward for everyone involved. I 'enjoyed' revisiting that ridiculous debacle from 2001 - just look where we are twenty-two years later.
Chris
How does this set up compare to a worker's co-op ?
Fantastic! Good effort to everyone involved
Well done Alan and team. I've been working for an EoT for the last 10 years and I can say it does work and it's a great way ensure a future legacy and equity for the partners.
Congratulations Alan and team!
> How does this set up compare to a worker's co-op ?
I'm afraid I can't answer in a detailed way but my limited understanding is that co-ops are better suited to start-ups and very small businesses, and EoTs are better for converting from an existing business that is already established.
Alan
Fabulous! My congratulations to you all!
My own company, Consult Red, converted to employee ownership almost two years ago. I firmly believe that it's the the way forward for small to medium sized enterprises.
Very cool. Good luck all!
About 5 years ago, when I wrote my first article for UKC, I was more than a little surprised when Natalie simply told me up front how much I was going to get paid for it. I've done a decent amount of freelance journalism over the years, and I am not exaggerating when I say this is the only time a publisher has made it clear from the beginning that they expected to pay me, and told me what they were going to pay me, without me first having to cajole or beg or insist. To put that in perspective, I'd previously written for big outlets like The Guardian or the TLS, and in the case of the former, never got paid at all - they just knew I'd be so grateful for the CV points that I'd take the gig for free. I had assumed that, as a relatively small website, UKC didn't pay contributors - to find out otherwise was not only a pleasant surprise, but told me an awful lot about the people behind the operation. I'm glad to see that spirit is not only still there, but going stronger than ever. Bravo.
This is really great news, congratulations.
Nice!
Very cool! The company I work for has also just transitioned to being an EOT. Great to see so many organisations moving in this direction. Congratulations UKC team!
Well done UKC/RockFax
Great news! Thanks for sharing the article and looking forward to hearing about more EOTs in the industry.
Very grateful you seem to have found a way to keep this invaluable online community hub away from the commercial death spiral it could easily have fallen into. I've been using this site to log my VDiff to HS onsights for as long as I can remember - long may it continue!
I would not be so glossy eyed about it.Employee owned businesses are very common in the USA that home of capitalism. USA seems rife with them in the small and mid sized sector.Its a real pity that such an ethos has not really got hold of the Uk market.
However they also are not good structures when a company goes through a difficult patch as it becomes hard to make tough decisions on cutting back.
For the dislikers about the USA , some 8 million people work for employee owned businesses in the USA. It’s an impressive number in the home of capitalism.
Great news.
Best wishes. Good to find new structures to escape 'them and us'. Hope it works well.
> Very pleased to read this, Chris the Tall would have been delighted
Thank you Liz, that's a really nice thing to say. We miss Chris's contributions on UKC.
Alan
> Very pleased to read this, Chris the Tall would have been delighted
I’d echo exactly what Alan had to say - I really miss Chris’ contributions to the site. Such a nice, warm and welcoming person both online and in reality.
Yes, a lovely bloke, I climbed with him a couple of times when he was on holiday down here in Cornwall.
> However they also are not good structures when a company goes through a difficult patch as it becomes hard to make tough decisions on cutting back.
I'd be interested to know what that's based on, I have some anecdata that suggests the opposite, but would be interested in a more rigorous comparison of worker owned vs single owner/shareholder ownership models.
My experience of starting a worker's coop (similar idea, to EOT - presumably similarly weak at making with 'tough decisions') was quite different - since we were all very invested in the co-op's success, making compromises on hours/pay etc was something we would do. This was repeated during the pandemic when the business (a small shop) survived, but many similar businesses in the same sector and city failed. I was no longer a member, but I thought it was a good advert for the resiliency that worker ownership can bring. But I am a very biased observer .
Look at the failures in the USA amongst employee owned businesses. Witnessed a competitor of mine in the USA where the employee owned business in effect died on its feet, it had a good business but became locked in employees shareholders battles for as each employee left the business had to fund the purchase of the shares and they in effect ran out of cash to buy back those shares.The remaining employee shareholders lost everything as they went bust. Needless to say a multibillionaire sweeped up the pieces and its now back on track.
The lesson is there is no perfect business model despite what people think.There are pluses and minuses.You tend never to hear about the minuses with employee owned models as everybody thinks its the ideal, do not kid yourself.
I work for an EOT organisation, that is not how the shares structure works for us. We collectively own 51%, but I specifically do not own shares - the trust does. So when I leave there are no shares of mine to fund. The only time the 'share' of the total shares per person comes into it is at bonus time where there is a profit sharing scheme and so a large expansion in staff could equal lower bonus payments.
As you say there are various structures that can be done which work well in certain situations.
I am not knocking the model, what I am saying is that it still is not perfect- nothing is whendealing with the rough and tumble of the business world.
> As you say there are various structures that can be done which work well in certain situations.
> I am not knocking the model, what I am saying is that it still is not perfect- nothing is whendealing with the rough and tumble of the business world.
What we need are more Elon Musks - swashbuckling, alpha-male, psychopaths...
The down votes are probably because your post doesn’t make much sense. Employee owned companies are not anti capitalist, they are just another way of doing capitalism. I’m not surprised they are popular in the US, they have a strong tradition around co-operation, despite all the shouting about individualism.
That is a better way of putting it......
> Look at the failures in the USA amongst employee owned businesses. Witnessed a competitor of mine in the USA where the employee owned business in effect died on its feet, it had a good business but became locked in employees shareholders battles for as each employee left the business had to fund the purchase of the shares and they in effect ran out of cash to buy back those shares.The remaining employee shareholders lost everything as they went bust. Needless to say a multibillionaire sweeped up the pieces and its now back on track.
This is not an EoT as I understand them which willworkforfoodjnr describes well. What you have described is the squabbling that can plague management buy-outs.
Having said that, I do agree with your assertion that EoTs may struggle should they fall on hard times, but then all businesses struggle when they fall on hard times. It is the case that EoTs may struggle to get finance more than other businesses that have the option to go to the shareholders for financing should they need it.
Alan