South Yorkshire Ownership Hub

As part of its effort to boost post-pandemic economic recovery in South Yorkshire, South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) was the first to commit to growing the number of worker and employee owners by teaming up with the Ownership Hub. 

Our partnership with SYMCA was launched by former Mayor Dan Jarvis in June 2021 as an integral part of a greater effort to create a more dynamic, productive and resilient local economy. 

In November 2022, Mayor Oliver Coppard launched the marketing campaign for the Ownership Hub. Supporting worker and employee ownership remains part of SYMCA’s strategy going forward, as set out in its Plan for Good Growth released in March 2024. 

Promoting worker and employee ownership 

Together we’ve supported, promoted and celebrated worker- and employee-owned businesses in the region, including: 

• Big Smile Tattoo, a co-op challenging traditional hierarchies in the tattoo industry through an egalitarian co-operative structure. See: Interview | Website
• Creative Space Management (CSM), an urban regeneration consultancy that became employee owned to continue with its values, vision and team. See: LinkedIn video | Website 
• Beanies Wholefood Co-op, a Sheffield based greengrocer and organic veg box supplier that’s a fairer, more satisfying place to work. See: LinkedIn video | Website 

• HLM Architects, an employee-owned architectural practice with a Sheffield office that’s empowering its worker owners. See: Interview | LinkedIn video | Website
• Airmaster, an employee-owned heating and cooling company based in Sheffield that gives everyone in the business a say in what happens. See: Interview | Website 
• Sheffield Fruit Trees, a horticultural worker co-op and social enterprise where working co‑operatively is the everyday, normal way of doing things. See: Interview | Website
• Doncaster Skate Co-op, a collective of skateboarders running the city’s only indoor skatepark – and benefitting from control and ownership at work. See: Interview | Website

Engagement and events

We partnered with a local worker-owned social enterprise, Opus Independents, to conduct a generative enquiry entitled Agency in the Workplace. It explores worker ownership and worker control of organisations in South Yorkshire through the stories of local people. Find you’ll find some of the stories via the links above. See all the Agency in the Workplace stories on the Now Then website here. 

We hosted a roundtable for South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard in May 2022 to discuss employee and worker ownership during his first 100 days of office. 

The Mayor spoke at our Ownership Hub marketing campaign launch event, run in partnership with the South Yorkshire Chambers of Commerce, at the Danum Gallery, Library and Museum in Doncaster in November 2022. 

We attended the Festival of Debate in 2022 and 2023. In 2022, we co-ran The Future of Cooperation session on 10 May. In 2023, we hosted the What if everyone had real agency in their workplace? session on 17 May and Co-ownership drop-in session on 23 May.

We celebrated Employee Ownership Day on 28 June 2023 at the Sheffield headquarters of employee-owned manufacturing firm Gripple, with keynote speakers South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard, Gripple’s Group Managing Director Ed Stubbs and James de le Vingne, CEO of the Employee Ownership Association. Find out more here.