Citypress is the largest employee-owned communications agency in the UK, with around 120 members of staff based in its Manchester headquarters and offices in Edinburgh and London. Founded in 1961 and representing some of the world’s biggest brands, the business has won multiple “best place to work” awards in recent years.
CEO Martin Currie was managing director at Citypress when the business transitioned to an employee-owned trust model in 2021. He explains that, with mergers and acquisitions a common occurrence in the communications industry, it was being approached by larger marketing services interested in acquiring Citypress – something that prompted the first conversations around employee ownership.
“As an owner-manager of the business, you’re faced with that thought all of a sudden: what does the future ownership of the business look like? We’re not going to be around forever. And like any owner, you’ve got to explore what that ultimate succession route could look like.”
While the prospect of merging with another business offered opportunity for growth, says Currie, it would have come at the cost of sacrificing “what we felt were the ingredients that had made Citypress such a special place in terms of its culture and the way we work”.
“We’ve always enjoyed being an indie kid, if I’m honest … We’ve always been very independent, and it was that independence that we wanted to somehow safeguard and protect – and almost enshrine in an ownership model.”
Citypress transferred 60% of its shares to an employee-owned trust in January 2021. “It’s been just over four years into our employee ownership journey and it’s been fantastic, we’ve never looked back,” says Currie.
Citypress’s employee-owned trust is independent of the business, and has its own board and governance procedures. All colleagues are beneficiaries of the trust through their employment with Citypress, which currently owns 80% of the business. Citypress plans to eventually transition to 100% employee ownership, favouring a gradual approach rather than overnight change.
“We’re probably the biggest evangelists for employee ownership within our industry,” says Currie. “Whenever I’m speaking to another communications company, and they’re exploring what their options look like, I talk to them about the values and benefits of being employee owned, but also explain that it’s a bit of a journey. Everything doesn’t change all at once the morning after you’ve converted. It’s a continuation of a bunch of different themes.”
Currie outlines three main differences employee ownership has made to Citypress so far: financial benefits; more secure work; and greater staff involvement in decisions.
Under its new model, Citypress can make a tax-free profit-share payment to colleagues meaning that workers directly benefit from the business’s development.
“Our colleagues are invested in the business, quite literally, in that respect,” says Currie. “That means the amount of energy and enthusiasm, you know, that our colleagues show shines through.”
Employee ownership can also offer colleagues a greater sense of certainty about the future of the business and their jobs.
“In our market, there’s a lot of mergers and acquisitions happening, and it’s creating huge waves of uncertainty for lots of different companies. But the advantage of being employee owned is that you’re independent in perpetuity. I think it gives our colleagues a huge amount of security, comfort and certainty in terms of the fact that we’re never going to be taken over by somebody else, and the culture isn’t going to change overnight.”
The final advantage – which is still unfolding, says Currie – is being able to build a business based on different principles to a traditional shareholder model.
“If you’re a shareholder-owned company where your shareholders are pension funds or other institutions, or a small group of private shareholders, then you’re being run in their best interests. But when your shareholder is effectively your colleagues, then you build a business based on the way it’s going to benefit them most, and that just changes the lens through which, as a business leader, you’ve then got to build and develop and grow the business.
“We’ve become so much more people-centric and purpose led – and so much more intentional about the kind of brands we want to represent and the work we want to do.”
This has impacted thinking around a host of issues affecting colleagues, such as learning and development; pay and benefits; and daily working practices. This new way of working became particularly important during and since the Covid pandemic, says Currie.
“For us, being employee owned, we consulted our people – rather than dictating to all colleagues. We elected to consult with them over how they want that balance to look.”
Citypress launched its employee ownership board at the beginning of this year. The group of around 10 staff members represents a range of seniority levels, working contracts and home backgrounds, and will weigh into key decisions affecting the business.
Employee ownership in the UK has seen rapid growth in recent years, with figures from the Employee Ownership Association estimating there are now 2,250 employee owned businesses in the UK – an increase of more than 30% on the previous year.
Currie has witnessed this surge in the time Citypress has been on its employee ownership journey: “There was another [employee-owned] agency that I was aware of at the time we transitioned … but there was only really us and them, even as little as three or four years ago. Now, there must be dozens of companies who have taken the same journey.”
Research conducted in 2023 showed that information and communications made up 8% of the UK’s employee owned businesses, making it the fifth largest industry in that landscape.
“In a people-centric business like communications, I often say, we don’t make a product – we’ve got no manufacturing, we’ve got no tooling. Our product is our people. And therefore, if you need to have the best employer value proposition, then you’re hard pushed to do better than being employee owned.”
While not a co-op itself, Citypress’s transition towards a more democratic ownership model has been recognised by those in the movement, such as its own client, Midcounties Co-op.
“When we announced to clients we had taken the decision to become employee owned, Midcounties, in particular, didn’t just say ‘thanks for letting us know’ – they were so supportive and so encouraging,” says Currie.
Citypress also began working with dairy co-op Arla last year, a move that Currie suggested was helped by their shared values as collectively owned businesses.
“We needed to show up as a highly capable and competent agency that can help them deliver on their brand goals and communications objectives. To be able to field a team of people within an agency that subscribes to the same values and principles of mutuality and equality of ownership was definitely helpful, and it really supports the relationship.
“We’re very keen to talk to more mutuals, co-operatives, and employee owned businesses as well.”
