B Corp schoolwear manufacturer Rowlinson Knitwear has put its business resilience throughout the pandemic down to being employee-owned. This announcement coincides with Employee Ownership Day (25 June 2021), an annual celebration of employee-owned businesses.
“Covid-19 presented all businesses with immense challenges,” says Donald Moore, chair of Rowlinson. “However, I’m confident that Rowlinson would not have navigated the crisis so well if we hadn’t been employee-owned.”
All colleagues have been co-owners of Rowlinson since 2015
The impacts of this have been significant, with profits, customer satisfaction, and colleague engagement all increasing. Since the start of the pandemic, Rowlinson has also maintained production capacity. Plus, colleague and customer satisfaction is at an all-time high.
Moore continues; “As an employee-owned business, we understand the importance of putting people first. This approach has created a really strong business foundation. During such a difficult and unpredictable episode in our business history, there’s no clearer testament to how strong our employee ownership culture is than how we’ve come through it. By maintaining our culture of care, both in the UK and at our overseas supplier factories, our people are motivated to perform at their best and come together for the collective good of the company.”
Rowlinson has led with care during the pandemic, ensuring its people have been at the heart of its decision-making. This includes paying all furloughed staff 90% of their usual pay. Also, ensuring all those forced to self-isolate were paid in full. To achieve this, the higher paid agreed to a wage cut to support the lower paid and vulnerable. Firms with a strong social conscience, such as employee-owned organisations, can more easily go down this route without objection.
The company also prioritised mental health
Rowlinson has been training employees in mental health matters so they can offer emotional support and practical advice. Ongoing activities to help combat isolation, including online coffee mornings and virtual quizzes, have provided an important support network for many colleagues.
Furthermore, when some businesses started selling facemasks to their customers and expected employees to have their own, Rowlinson gave them away free of charge. All colleagues in the UK and overseas supply chain were provided with facemasks, with 250,000 masks provided to customers, and 50,000 free masks supplied to those in need in the local community.
“Being an employee-owned company makes everyone want to help and support one another,” concludes Moore. “This is reflected in everything we do. People and planet will always come first and profit last. The result is we have a highly motivated and resilient team, so when a crisis hits, we find great strength in finding our way through it.”
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