CLF Distribution is now an employee-owned business, its founder Robin Holiday has announced.
The Southhampton-based health food wholesaler has been converted into an Employee-Owned Trust (EOT) – that is, a business run and owned by its staff.
Former owner, Holiday, says he has always strived to build a company where employees enjoy going to work. “The recently introduced strapline ‘In it together’ can now be taken quite literally, the people behind CLF are not only its owners, they are also the present and the future of the company. The fundamental ethos of an EOT being putting a company’s people first and allowing them to share in the profits they generate, under the scheme employees can earn up to £3,600 per annum tax free”.
EOTs now span a wide range of business sectors, with well known examples including KPMG and the John Lewis Partnership. In 2018 Riverford Organic became employee owned (with 74% of shares moved into an EOT), a decision Guy Singh-Watson says he has “grown happier each day” about.
As an EOT, CLF says it hopes its future will flourish from increased employee engagement, innovation, high rates of productivity and improved attendance. The company says that the past two years have “proved, survival and success are born from working together, trusting in each other”.
“I am looking forward to watching CLF flourish under employee ownership and I am confident this change will help the company reach its full potential. I am proud of the team and the service we have provided over the last 23 years; I am looking forward to this new chapter as the company’s managing director”, says Holiday.
Photo: Robin Holiday, CLF founder and managing director. Jim Manson