A better way to do business

Capital for Colleagues (C4C) has been established to act as an investor of its own capital and resources in the share capital and debt of other businesses. The common theme is that each investee business must have a significant commitment to employee share ownership (or ‘co-ownership’).

Investments are made in the belief that involving employees in the ownership of their own business, leads to better outcomes for all stakeholders and importantly still permits a committed co-investor, such as C4C, to generate a fair commercial return for its own investors.

For some businesses with an employee ownership aspiration, traditional sources of funding, such as bank debt or equity capital, can be hard to come by. Historically, where equity capital has been available, the private equity sector has typically seen its period of ownership as ideally short term and often linked to significant parallel debt financing. C4C seeks to play its part in plugging this funding gap, to make co-ownership a possibility for more and more businesses.

Recent economic turmoil has only served to underline the challenges faced within the business environment. It is suggested that these challenges require a delicate balance between the best of free market capitalism and the ideals of socialism. They also perhaps even highlight the need to examine the very structure of our society. Recent years have seen an increase in the level of debt carried across both the private and public sectors and most significantly, an apparent breakage of the link between those who manage businesses, the delivery of services to their customers and the aspirations of their ultimate owners. A co-ownership approach offers the tantalising opportunity to play a part in redressing this balance and in doing so to create a more sustainable model for the benefit of all.

According to the Employee Ownership Association (EOA), the voice of the sector, co-owned companies now account for in excess of £25 billion of annual UK turnover and the sector continues to grow at a significant rate, because co-ownership is proven to be a durable, successful business model which creates sustainable, competitive companies.