Kudos Records Limited is proud to announce that it has transitioned to a 100% employee owned enterprise. The entire share capital has now been sold to a newly-formed Employee Ownership Trust. As beneficiaries of that Trust, each employee automatically becomes a co-owner in the business. As well as immediately benefiting from profit distributions, employees also have more input into the running of the company.
Kudos founder, Danny Ryan, will remain with the company as MD for at least the next five years, seeing it through this transition.
About Kudos
Kudos Records Limited was established in 1992 to provide “efficient and effective distribution services to a new breed of independent record label”*.
Since then it has expanded to offer a range of services including digital distribution and direct-to-customer fulfilment in addition – with all aspects handled completely in-house.
An early mover in digital, signing up as an iTunes supplier in the first wave, Kudos were also one of the first to recognise the importance of streaming. When Spotify floated, they were the first to equitably distribute their windfall. More recently they were quick to identify the importance to labels of D2C sales, building an in-house fulfilment platform which can aggregate orders from Bandcamp, Discogs, Amazon Marketplace and their own web sales.
”Kudos Records has always been committed to fostering a culture of ownership and engagement among its employees. This transition to employee ownership will further align the interests of employees with those of the business. I’ve also always attached great importance to having a genuinely independent distribution option for record labels. In this era of consolidation, Employee Ownership secures Kudos’s future as a truly independent music company.
Danny Ryan, Managing Director and Founder.
“Kudos has always had a collaborative working environment and we aim to build on that as we enter this new chapter so that all employees will feel they have a voice in the direction of the company and a stake in its future.”
Ben Morris, Label Manager and Employee Trustee.
“The next few years may be the most challenging trading environment we have known in decades. Facing these headwinds with an enthusiastic team of co-owners will undoubtedly provide us with the competitive advantage we will need.”
Simon Cullwick, Director and Head of Digital.
About Employee Ownership
Employee ownership is one of the fastest growing business succession solutions in the UK, where there are now more than 1,000 employee-owned businesses, with the sector more than doubling in the past three years.
The fast pace of growth amongst businesses has taken off with the use of the employee ownership trust (EOT), introduced by the government in 2014 to encourage long-term employee ownership, and one in every 20 private company sales is now to an EOT, with Kudos Records Limited joining a network of EOTs in the UK that include Richer Sounds and Go Ape.
“We congratulate our members Kudos Records Limited on its transition to employee ownership; securing the ethos, values, and culture of the business, as well as rooting jobs in Kudos.
“Businesses that give employees a stake and a say build trust and shared responsibility, uniting leaders and employees behind a common purpose, and leaving businesses in a better position to flex and adapt.”
James de le Vingne, Chief Executive of the Employee Ownership Association (EOA)
“Employee ownership creates dynamic, engaged workforces who feel a deep connection and shared purpose with where they work and who they work with.
“Increasing the number of employee and worker owned businesses is a key part of my mission to build a better London for everyone – a safer, fairer, greener and more prosperous city for all.”
Sadiq Khan – Mayor of London
For further information please contact press@kudosrecords.co.uk
