London publisher the Folio Society bought by employees for £10m
London publisher the Folio Society has announced that its 40 employees have bought the company for £10m, in what its bosses called a “progressive, industry-leading” move.
The publisher – which has released recent titles including Frank Herbert’s Dune; Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and Alice Walker’s The Color Purple – will now be totally owned by staff.
Under the terms of an employment ownership trust (EOT), the company will follow in the steps of companies including John Lewis, Riverford and Richer Sounds.
Day-to-day management of the business will be the same, with its current management board remaining in place, including CEO Joanna Reynolds, CFO Urmi Dutta-Roy and publishing director Tom Walker.
The firm was owned by its chairman Labour life peer Lord Gavron from 1982 until his death in 2015.
Shareholder and management board chair Kate Gavron said: “I am certain that my late husband, Bob Gavron, who bought the company in 1982, would have approved enthusiastically. Folio is a publisher of beautiful books, created to the highest editorial standards and with outstanding design and illustration.”
She added: “It is fitting that the new owners should be the employees, as they are the people who have made it what it is today.”
The EOT represented a “progressive, innovative, industry-leading approach,” according to CEO Joanna Reynolds.
Speaking ahead of the publisher’s 75th anniversary, she added: “The people who have driven the business forward and who will continue to strive for excellence in everything we do, will own Folio. We believe that our authors, illustrators and other key partners will celebrate with us in this positive step towards the next 75 years of Folio’s story. We love the books we publish and know they can only get even better.”