Family passes largest stake to Oldrids staff

Employees are now the biggest single shareholding group in Lincolnshire department store group Oldrids. The family-founded business is gradually passing into staff hands as it moves towards a John Lewis-style ownership structure.

At present, the managing director is Martin Isaac, whose family took over the two-store business in the early 1900s. However, fewer family members are entering the firm, so each year 10 per cent of profit is invested in shares that are held in trust for employees.

They now own 10.1 per cent of the business and are represented on the board by three staff directors.