Great Cornish Food Store becomes employee-owned
Cornwall’s independent Great Cornish Food Store is to become an employee-owned business as it celebrates six successful years since its launch.
The business shares its premises at Tregurra Park in Truro with Waitrose, which as part of the John Lewis Partnership, is also employee owned.
Waitrose Truro team manager Izzy Rickcord said: “We take pride in the fact that as owners, our partners are empowered to have a genuine say in the future of our business. It is encouraging to see the Great Cornish Food Store adopt the model and recognise the benefits it can bring – including higher levels of employee engagement, service and commitment. Ultimately, this not only has a positive impact on them as individuals, but the customers they become even more responsible for looking after too.”
Founded by Ruth Huxley in 2016, Great Cornish Food Store has its own butcher, fishmonger and deli, with all food and drink on sale coming from around 200 local suppliers. The company said it has injected around £8 million directly into the local food and drink industry since its inception.
Huxley said: “I grew up with an understanding that there are different ways of doing business and was very aware how rewarding my dad found being part of an employee-owned company and how much pride he had in his employers. I’ve had the idea for a while that this might be something I could replicate with my own business, and it feels like this is the perfect ‘re-set’ moment for it.”
Oliver Basham, general manager of the Great Cornish Food Store, will join Huxley as one of the directors of the company.
Basham added: “I’m inspired by Ruth’s vision and the company ethos, and by this pioneering move to be an employee-owned company. It has gone down so well with all of our team, some of whom have been with the company since the very beginning.”
