Employee Ownership for the underrepresented

How Employee Ownership Opens Doors for the Underrepresented 

When Britain’s largest independent toy retailer, The Entertainer, transferred 100% of its shares to nearly 1,900 employees through an Employee Ownership Trust, it wasn’t just a clever business succession plan. It was a powerful act of fairness and inclusion. It gave everyday workers – many from underrepresented or working-class backgrounds a real say, a real share, and a chance to shape their future. 

At a time when the distance between the wealth of business owners and those who invest their time as workers is dramatically increasing, and at a time when ownership and wealth are thereby increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few, employee ownership (EO) offers something radically different: dignity, fairness, and greater opportunity for those who actually build our businesses through the investment of their effort and operational activity. 

Why Having a Say Matters 

For underrepresented groups, the benefits of EO often go far beyond finances. Ownership changes how people see themselves, their work, and their role in society. 

• Mental health and well-being: Knowing your voice counts and that your work builds something you partly own, can reduce stress, strengthen resilience, and give employees pride rather than anxiety about being undervalued. 

• Equality of opportunity and fairness: Investment in traditional ownership models have in the past left women, ethnic minorities, and working-class people marginalised when it comes to wealth creation. EO removes those barriers. It doesn’t matter what your cultural gender or social context – everyone can have a stake in the business outcome. 

• Confidence and representation: With employee representatives sitting on governance boards and trust bodies, EO creates pathways to leadership and influence that many underrepresented groups rarely see. 

The Power of Even a Small Share 

EO is often painted as purely a financial structure, but its impact is also lived out in daily life. Even modest profit shares or tax-free bonuses can unlock life chances. For example: 

• An extra £500 a year could help pay for a child’s swimming lessons, gymnastics club, or music classes- opportunities that build confidence and open doors later in life. 

• It could cover rising energy bills or reduce reliance on expensive credit, easing financial stress. 

• It might help a family move out of a struggling area into a safer community, breaking cycles of disadvantage. This is enables real social mobility. 

And this is what social mobility looks like: not abstract percentages on a chart, but parents able to invest in their children’s futures, workers able to breathe more easily about their finances, and communities strengthened by stability.  

The Bigger Picture: Scaling Fairness Through EO 

The Entertainer’s decision is part of a much larger movement. In the UK, employee ownership is growing at pace, with more than 2,470 businesses now employee-owned- a more than 600% increase since 2018. In sectors like wholesale and retail, EO already makes up over 11% of transitions (Employee Ownership Association). It also works effectively for professional practices like architecture, engineering, technology and law. 

This model works because it keeps profits circulating within communities rather than extracting them to distant investors. It protects jobs, preserves legacies, and builds more resilient businesses. And for underrepresented groups, it brings ownership, voice, and influence within reach- at scale. 

Across the world, we’re seeing governments and companies embrace this. In the US, Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) provide wealth-sharing benefits at retirement. In Canada, lawmakers have recently introduced new EOT-style structures. In Europe the Netherlands is leading the way with France, Slovenia, and other European nations also exploring models rooted in trust, inclusion, and employee governance. 

“The momentum is global. The opportunity is urgent” 

Why EO Should Become the Default Exit?

For many owners, selling to private equity or competitors has long been an “easy option.” But those deals too often strip away culture, cut jobs, and funnel profits away from the very people whose operational energy built the company. 

Employee ownership is different. It: 

• Empowers employees with real ownership and voice. 

• Preserves business culture and values, protecting legacies rather than dismantling them. 

• Spreads wealth more fairly, opening pathways for underrepresented groups to benefit from business success. 

• Strengthens communities, by keeping profits, jobs, and decisions rooted locally. 

“Imagine if EO wasn’t seen as an alternative, but as the expected and default exit choice. Imagine if every time a business owner stepped back, the natural question was: “How do we hand this to the people who invested their time and energy to build it?” 

That shift would reshape not only how businesses change hands but also who gets to benefit. It would mean: 

• More families able to save, invest, and thrive. 

• More underrepresented voices shaping the future of work. 

• More communities protected from the churn of short-term ownership. 

It would mean an economy where success is shared more fairly – and where ownership belongs to those who truly earn it every day.  

The Entertainer’s bold move shows what’s possible. EO is not charity it’s about dignity, mental health, fairness, and everyday life chances for people who have too often been excluded from ownership. 

“Employee ownership mustn’t remain the exception. It should be the rule. The question isn’t whether we can afford to make EO the most common exit route. It’s whether we can afford not to”