The Alternatives: worker-owned businesses – podcast

Aditya Chakrabortty speaks to John Clark, about how instead of selling off his business to the highest bidder, he decided to explore how he could transfer ownership to those with the best interests of the company at heart: its employees

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When John Clark decided to sell his successful sign-printing business Novograf he received interest from a large American firm. But when it emerged that such a deal would mean the factory outside Glasgow almost certainly being shut, he decided to explore other options. He tells Aditya Chakrabortty how the idea of employee ownership almost literally dropped into his lap - and how it offered the possibility of ensuring the lasting survival of a business he had worked so hard to build.