Union of Steward Employee Owners (USEO)

The Union of Steward Employee Owners (USEO) is an initiative aimed at creating a more equitable distribution of wealth by providing the mechanism, money and training to enable employees to own the majority of the companies they work in. It operates by acquiring businesses and transitioning them to Employee Ownership (EO), funded by charitable ‘Pledges’ from Member companies.

USEO stands out in several key ways:

• Self-reinforcing model: Our approach creates a flywheel effect. As we acquire more businesses and transition them to employee ownership, we generate more revenue, which in turn allows us to acquire more businesses. This creates a self-sustaining cycle of funding and positive change.
• Addressing root causes: While many charities do noble work, they often focus on addressing symptoms of societal issues. USEO aims to tackle a root cause of many of the issues we face: wealth inequality. We do this by changing the fundamental structure of business ownership.
• Focussed power: Unlike many initiatives that spread resources thinly across various areas, USEO concentrates its efforts and resources on just one thing: acquiring UK businesses and giving them over to their employees.
• Democratic and simple: USEO operates a membership model that is straightforward and democratic. Every member has an equal voice, and both contributions and proceeds are shared transparently.
• Long-term vision: We're not looking for quick fixes. Our goal is to create lasting change in how businesses operate and how wealth is distributed, with a vision extending to 2050 and beyond.
• Scalability: Our model is designed to grow and scale, capable of transforming the entire economy over time.

By focusing on these principles, USEO aims to create deep, systemic change rather than just temporary relief. We're not just treating symptoms – we're working to cure the underlying disease of wealth inequality in a sustainable way.

While both initiatives involve companies donating 1% of turnover, USEO concentrates all of those donations (plus funds from individual Supporters) under one membership organisation and uses them exclusively to increase employee ownership.

Rather than supporting specific environmental causes (which we’re also highly supportive of!) USEO aims to fundamentally replace parasitic capitalism with equitable capitalism and balance wealth more evenly throughout society, the expectation is that this will have cascading myriad benefits for people and planet.

No. USEO is a membership company, limited by guarantee (not shares - so can’t be sold). It is a legal structure that is regularly used by non-profits and those seeking to make a positive impact, as it supports transparency and protection.

At USEO, all money received – whether from Pledges, donations or dividends – will be spent on just one thing; acquiring UK businesses that are good candidates for employee ownership (EO), and then helping those businesses on their EO journey.

We are completely transparent - publishing reports every six months, in March and October, to show how money was spent and what impact was achieved.

“Create equality. Protect Earth. Save humanity.”

Our vision is intentionally bold.

The Union of Steward Employee Owners (USEO) provides a blueprint to unify capital, power and purpose into one simple self-reinforcing model that’s intrinsically fair.

It creates equitable capitalism by transferring money and power into the hands of the tens of millions of employees who make up the backbone of the UK economy.

At USEO we want to alter capitalism to something that benefits all people, improves the working conditions of employees, maximises the positive impact of business, creates fairer, more equitable societies and massively improves the chances that we pass on a liveable home to future generations.

Ultimately, the end game is that we inspire, or compel, the handful of asset management companies that own the majority of the world's employees, to turn over at least 51% of those companies to the people working there (or sell them to us, and we’ll do it!).

Our aim is to make majority employee ownership the default model for business across the world.

The money raised by USEO is used exclusively to acquire UK businesses (called a ‘Peer’) and convert them into employee owned businesses through the use of an Equal Employee Ownership Trust (E=EOT) legal structure.

In the cases where the previous owners were foreign this immediately brings the benefits of both wealth creation and fair taxation within the UK.

During the acquisition we make a series of changes to improve the Peer. These include modifying the Articles to provide clarity on the Purpose & Mission, qualifying the Directors Duties to balance profit with people and planet and improving Accountability & Transparency. USEO also appoints a ‘Guardian’ Director to provide a permanent connection between the Peer and USEO.

We accept money from companies, and individuals. Companies need to be at least 2 years old and VAT registered to Pledge. They become members of USEO. Individuals are also welcome to contribute, either monthly or one-off. For administrative reasons individuals don’t become members.

As a matter of principle it is worth stating that we intentionally do not refuse money from any legal source. That’s because we are absolutely confident (and so can you be) that money donated towards USEO will be used for only one purpose: to acquire Peers and make them majority employee owned. That has such positive benefits for society and the planet that it can’t be net negative to accept the money.

We are completely transparent about our spending, publish biannual reports that track use of funds and the positive impact made, including the number of employees upraised.

Our CEO Simon Blackler has led 12 successful acquisitions at Krystal (the USEO Guardian Member). In each case, the acquired companies have been commercial successes, contributing many times their acquisition cost back. More importantly, the individuals in those companies have stayed on to work alongside Simon which gives us confidence that the same thing can be done again.

In the future the intention is to have a dedicated M&A team led by a Chief Acquisition Officer (CAO) but initially to keep costs down you’re stuck with ole’ Simon!

Our target is to announce the first Peer acquisition by the end of 2025. So within a year of launching USEO.

We anticipate that the act of creating USEO and sharing our vision will resonate with a subset of the business community who may have already been contemplating EO, looking to exit, or both. There’s a form on the site for potential Peers to express their interest in USEO exit.