In this episode of Stake & Soul, Barry speaks with Andrew Murphy, CEO of The Entertainer, the family-founded toy retailer that completed its 100 percent transition to an Employee Ownership Trust in September 2025. The move turned around 2,000 colleagues into employee owners, and Andrew is leading the business through what he describes as the early foothills of a long transformation.
Andrew spent more than 30 years at the John Lewis Partnership, starting on the shop floor in Aberdeen in 1992 and rising to Group Chief Operating Officer. He joined The Entertainer in 2023 to lead the next chapter, working alongside founders Gary and Catherine Grant as they prepared the business for life beyond the family.
What’s covered in this episode:
- Andrew’s improbable route into John Lewis, having been turned down twice before getting in via a cheeky letter, and what 30 years inside a co-owned business actually taught him about ownership in practice.
- Why the partnership model felt utterly unique in the early 90s, and why Andrew believes the differential between John Lewis and the wider corporate world has narrowed over time.
- The headhunter call that landed him at The Entertainer, and his honest reflection that no amount of intellectualising matters in a founder-led business if the founder doesn’t trust the cut of your jib.
- How the pandemic shifted the Grant family’s thinking on succession, why a public float was ruled out immediately, and how the Tesco partnership swallowed almost two years of leadership focus before EO came back to the table.
- Why Andrew describes The Entertainer’s EO transition as a case where “the hearts were always hoping” for employee ownership while the heads needed time to be convinced.
- The communications choreography of the announcement: an all-hands broadcast, immediate written follow-up, and a full-day in-person event in Birmingham for the top 250 colleagues that acted as the symbolic handover from Gary to the leadership team.
- Why The Entertainer brought in an external communications agency, and what worked so well that Andrew says there’s almost nothing he would change about how it landed.
- The governance architecture: a Trust Board chaired by Patrick Lewis (former John Lewis CFO) with Callum Lafferty (a former John Lewis Partnership Council member) as employee trust director, sitting alongside the group board and a new 13-person Colleague Advisory Board.
- Why Andrew is adamant that employee voice should sit in one clearly recognised place, and how Colleague Advisory Groups feed into the Colleague Advisory Board rather than running in parallel.
- The commercial decisions that have shifted post-transition, including Sunday trading (with a 94–95% opt-in rate from colleagues) and product range decisions previously made on faith-based grounds.
- Andrew’s clear-eyed view on how Gary’s Christian faith shaped The Entertainer’s culture, what he sees as the durable underpinning principles that remain, and why a complete “cold turkey” handover was the right call for at least the first 18 months.
- Why owner mindset cannot be rushed, and Andrew’s view that it takes a minimum of two years and a repeated cycle of communication, involvement and financial reward before colleagues genuinely feel like owners.
- A practical warning that lenders, banks and credit insurers often don’t understand EO transitions, and how much “rearguard action” was needed to reassure financial stakeholders.
Quickfire highlights
- Employee ownership is: a learning journey full of possibilities.
- Biggest EO surprise: how quickly people got on board with the idea of a journey, the destination of which is unclear.
- Book recommendation: Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, for its story of innovation, cross-cultural partnership and the centrality of cash flow in a young business.
- Confessional: a candid moment of honesty about how his brain works, and his unusual technique for staying sharp through long, intense board meetings – playing chess in the lulls.
Barry and Andrew also touch on the difference between transaction, transition and transformation, and Andrew’s advice to incoming CEOs of EO businesses to under-promise actively, because the meaningful changes take time to land.
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The following podcast is intended to be of a general nature, will not be suitable for everyone, and should not be treated as a specific recommendation. We recommend taking professional advice before entering into any obligation or transaction.