VME Shares FAQ

In short they allow you to vote and shape the direction of our coop and when profits are available to enjoy a return of those profits along with everyone else. That’s the unique difference of being part of a worker coop, through our work we are all investing in ourselves as well as the enterprise.

We only have two types of share, both of which are currently available to employees, namely Labour Shares and Investor Shares, although the Investor Shares will only be available for a limited period
(see When can I expect to share in the profits based on these shares?).

One key difference is that Labour Shares are only available for workers of our coop after they have completed their probationary period. As only workers can hold these Labour Shares when a colleague leaves VME they have to hand those Labour Shares back. Investor Shares on the other hand are not lost when a colleague leaves, they can be kept, and they will still be entitled to a return of available profits even after the colleague has left VME.

Both share types entitle their holders to share in the available profits of the business after our conversion payments have stopped, but the Labour Shares get a bit extra (51% of available profits) compared to the Investor Shares (49% of available profits).

The Labour Shares are also voting shares entitling employees to attend and vote at our AGM, whereas the Investor Shares are non-voting.

Labour Shares are awarded once a year as follows:
• 25 shares are awarded for each complete month worked with VME; and
• Additional Labour Shares are awarded depending on how many team ‘circles’ you are involved in throughout the year.
Investor Share entitlement is based on the number of Labour Shares you hold, this is calculated once a year and you will be told the exact number you can receive each year.
The key takeaway here is that everyone is entitled to shares based on the same criteria regardless of role, grade or salary, from the CEO down - everyone is treated equally.

As a worker coop it’s our colleagues who drive our business under the guidance of the board. Colleagues can choose to get involved in things like finance, marketing, development or our sustainability programme. We refer to these different functions as ‘circles’ and although you’re not required to take part if you do this will entitle you to hold additional Labour Shares at no cost

The shares are entitled to available profits once the last conversion payment (see when can I expect to share in profits based on these shares) has been made. How much really depends on how well the business has performed and any investment decisions which the members, i.e. our workers, want to make.

The point here is that while we cannot say how much money will be made and returned in the future, what we can say is that it is available to the employees and the investor members together.
You cannot sell your Labour Shares as they come as part of being a worker, you will however be able to sell your Investor Shares once the conversion payments have stopped and if someone is willing to buy them.

We cannot give you an exact date for this as its dependent on business performance, currently we’d estimate another 4 to 7 years but there’s two important points to note here:

First if you choose to take Investor Shares during this period then, once the conversion payments have stopped you will hold more shares, and will therefore be entitled to a greater payment than say, someone who started the year before the last conversion payment.

In fact, once the conversion payments have stopped the employees will no longer be automatically entitled to any further Investor Shares (although those who received Investor Shares before then can keep them and employees will still continue to receive Labour Shares). We think this is fairer so that those who join us now and help build VME aren’t punished for doing so, and it’s why the early ‘coop-founder’ employees will get a bigger return in the long-run.

Secondly, while other organisations may not have a conversion payment to consider they do often impose waiting time limits or conditions, for example, three years or a listing before employees can enjoy a return. To be clear we don’t do that.