What: A generous corporate financial decision.
Who: Aardman Animations, the U.K.’s top animation studio.
Why we care: It turns out the team behind Wallace and Gromit is just as endearing as the characters it has created. Aardman has just announced it is giving its 140 employees a 75% stake in the business to protect the company’s independence.
Aardman’s empire creates movies like Chicken Run and Shaun the Sheep, along with merchandising, licensing, and multimedia. Founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton will continue to own a quarter of Aardman Holdings, the company’s parent group, and receive a hefty, multimillion-pound payday from the deal. Meanwhile, the 140 employees and 180 current freelancers will also continue receiving a share of profits and have a say in running the business.
“We are balancing what we are comfortable taking out and what doesn’t stress the company out,” Sproxton told the Guardian in a comprehensive piece about the deal. “We have been thinking about this a long time and built up considerable cash reserves so we could do this without borrowing any money.”
It’s called doing well by doing good. Perhaps Amazon should look into it.
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