Staff at Quintessa celebrated EO Day in various ways, including a picnic followed by a game of Aunt Sally. This is a traditional English game which involves attempting to knock a "dolly" off a spike by throwing a wooden baton at it from a distance. Great fun was had by all, with the glorious summer weather the icing on the cake.

Due to the strong vision of its founder, David Hodgkinson, Quintessa has been employee owned from its inception and since July 2014 its shares have been held in an Employee Ownership Trust for the benefit of its employees. In 2015, David was awarded Employee Owner of the Year in recognition of his efforts to promote and develop employee ownership.

Quintessa is proud to celebrate employee ownership, as Richard Little, the Managing Director, explains:

“EO Day is a great way of raising the profile of employee ownership.  It is our vision that every Quintessa employee should be able to contribute to each aspect of our business through active participation in company meetings and our operational and strategic decisions. The practical impact of this approach is that we make better decisions by drawing on the knowledge and experience of all our staff.”

Deb Oxley, CEO of the Employee Ownership Association, said:

“Companies such as Quintessa are great examples of the economic and social benefits that can be achieved in an employee-owned environment. The EOA is proud to lead the sector-wide celebrations of employee ownership on EO Day 2018, as part of our activity to raise awareness and move employee ownership further into the mainstream of business structures.”

Employee ownership is an economically strong and balanced business model which contributes over £30 billion to the UK economy annually.  The benefits of employee ownership include improving employee health and wellbeing, increasing productivity and fostering creativity and innovation across an array of industry sectors including healthcare, social care, education, transport, manufacturing, retail and professional services.