Veg box firm Riverford to be 100% staff-owned as founder sells stake for £10m

theguardian.com:

The organic vegetable box company Riverford is to become 100% owned by its staff after its founder, Guy Singh-Watson, agreed to sell his remaining 23% stake for almost £10m.

Singh-Watson, who sold nearly three-quarters of the company to employees in 2018, will take a £9.8m payment over five years and immediately hand full control to a trust on behalf of its 900 staff who each receive an annual profit share and participate in the running of the business.

The 63-year-old farmer said the deal, which will take the total paid for his shares in the business to £14m since 2018, did not mark his retirement and that he would continue to be involved in the business as a trustee, non-executive director and spokesperson for the business.

“Founders find negotiating this transition to their successors incredibly difficult and painful and most people make a bit of a mess of it,” Singh-Watson said. “Founders can hang around too long, and I don’t want to be that person who needs to be told to go.”

He added: “When the business became employee-owned in 2018, I wanted to ensure that the move was a successful one, and that the values of the business were safeguarded by its new owners and governance arrangements.

“Since then, it’s been a privilege to witness the business grow in ways we couldn’t have predicted, all while remaining committed to its founding purpose: to balance the needs of customers, suppliers, the environment, and wider society, and provide fair and rewarding employment to our staff.”

Singh-Watson said a proportion of the cash he was receiving would be invested in more solar power and agroforestry on his own farms – in Devon and France – with some going to the Ripple Effect charity, which helps farmers overseas, and local community