London design consultancy dn&co becomes employee-owned
London-based design agency dn&co has become the latest in a long line of consultancies to adopt an employee-ownership model. Founder Joy Nazarri said of the news, “I am extremely lucky to have worked with such talented people over the last 14 years, and now is the time to share that success.”
Employee ownership is now the fastest growing form of business ownership in the UK – with companies in multiple sectors working to join famous examples like John Lewis in the practice, or recently, British home entertainment retailer Richer Sounds. Companies that are employee-owned, or that have large and significant employee ownership stakes, contribute £30 billion to the national GDP of the UK today, and a number of consulting firms are making moves to take up the structure.
Perhaps most famously, PA Consulting Group has historically been owned in part by its staff, along with engineering firms Arup and Mott MacDonald, while MindWorks Marketing switched to the model in 2017, choosing employee ownership following a successful period of growth. London-based risk consultancy 4most followed suit a year later, transitioning from a privately-held firm to reinforce the company’s unique working culture which had led to its success, while earlier in 2019 B2E Consulting similarly made the move to becoming an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT).
Now, London-based design consultancy dn&co has become the latest consulting firm to take up the status of being an employee-owned business. dn&co specialises in place branding, and has created work for cities, neighbourhoods and cultural institutions such as the V&A, Here East – a tech centre on the London 2012 Olympics site – and the central London district of St. James’s. The firm’s EOT will now hold 100% of shares on behalf of its employees.
Commenting on the move, Founder Joy Nazzari stated, “For a creative studio, building a thriving business goes hand-in-hand with having an outstanding team. I am extremely lucky to have worked with such talented people over the last 14 years, and now is the time to share that success with those who make it possible by giving everyone at dn&co a stake in the business and a say in its future.”
The expertise of the dn&co team includes film making, social media and signage, along with the curating of exhibitions such as Hey Neighbour, which will run next September at its own Ground Floor Space gallery. Other projects of the firm include branding work on the conversion of the BBC’s former Television Centre, which has been transformed to a site for homes, cafés, restaurants, gardens, cinema, hotel and restored recording studios.
