Tangerine is to follow the John Lewis model, by becoming employee owned.
The Manchester agency has announced that it will place 64% of its shares into The Tangerine Partnership and this will be shared amongst its team.
Through the move, employees will become partners and benefit from profit-sharing and also have a direct influence on how the business is run. Tangerine is ranked second on Prolific North’s definitive compilation of PR agencies in the North.
“I have always promised, since launching the business 15 years ago, that I would one day like to put it in the hands of the people who helped me grow it,” explained Sandy Lindsay MBE, chair of Tangerine.
“Our values – ‘do great work; treat people properly’ – have always been central to everything we do and we wanted to find a way to ensure we can continue these into the future for the benefit of all.”
Lindsay believes Tangerine is the first communications agency to make the move.
“Some of the UK’s best companies are looking to employee ownership as a great business model to adopt which helps them to attract and retain the right talent, which in turn helps to develop and maintain great relationships with clients as well as protecting the brand, ethos and contribution the businesses makes to its local economy for future generations,” added Deb Oxley CEO of the Employee Ownership Association.
Stop press. An eagle-eyed reader (Nathan Lane of Campfire PR) has alerted to us the fact that Tangerine is indeed probably the first comms company to do this but also that an unusual ad agency in London back in 2000 St. Lukes was doing something equally novel. Story courtesy of Harvard Business Review.
