Not selling up (torchbox.com)

Torchbox, a digital agency with 65 employees and offices in Bristol and Oxfordshire, has become the first digital agency in the UK to transfer 100% of its business to its employees. The company offers digital product development and marketing services to clients across non-profit, healthcare and higher education sectors. It created Wagtail, the popular open source CMS now used by the NHS, NASA and Google. The founders first revealed plans to staff in March and expect the sale process to complete on the 28th June 2019.

Torchbox’s employees, who will receive a tax-free bonus of up to £3,600 every year as part of the deal, have elected a Trust of Directors from the existing workforce. The Trust will work alongside Torchbox’s Directors to oversee strategy and growth, with an emphasis on ensuring that the business’s sense of purpose and values remains paramount.

Torchbox founders Olly and Tom will be part of the Trust for five years, until their majority stake is repaid by the business. Staff will eventually be able to decide how to direct agency profits and will continue to input into the running of the business via the Trust, in a model similar to that of the John Lewis Partnership.

“When we were considering the future of Torchbox, we thought about the importance of retaining our independent spirit, continuing our fast growth and empowering our brilliant team to take an active part in our business,” explained Olly Willans. “We decided that by far the best people to own Torchbox are the people who have made it the success it is today, and the people who will continue to make it a success tomorrow. If we were going to choose employee ownership, then we wanted to commit to it entirely without maintaining any kind of minority shareholding.”