In this episode of Stake & Soul, Barry speaks with Liam Toms, Communications and Engagement Manager at Grapevine, the Dorset-based managed IT and telecoms provider that transitioned to 100 percent employee ownership via an Employee Ownership Trust in March 2023. Two and a half years later, Grapevine was named EO Rising Star of the Year at the 2025 UK Employee Ownership Awards.
Liam talks about coming into Grapevine from a marketing and academic background, what the EO transition actually felt like from the inside, the imperfect path of building governance, a Co-Owner Charter and a comms rhythm that works, and the things he tried that didn’t land first time round.
What’s covered in this episode:
- How Grapevine evolved from a 1991 mobile reseller into a B2B telecoms business, then a merged IT and telecoms provider, and why a trade sale was rejected in favour of EO.
- Liam’s unusual route in via Bournemouth University and a Knowledge Transfer Partnership, and why feeling like an outsider initially helped him during the transition.
- The communication of the EO announcement itself, the shift from a board of five directors to two, and how an Employee Forum became an unintended training ground for future senior leaders.
- The evolution of governance at Grapevine: a Trust Board with a rotating founder seat, an external trustee, an employee representative, the disbanded forum, and the open question of what comes next as Financial Freedom Day approaches.
- The tension between paying larger profit shares and reinvesting in headcount, working patterns and team wellbeing once the deferred consideration is paid off.
- How Liam reinvented internal comms, from a weekly Monday email to a browser homepage progress bar tracking the deferred consideration payoff.
- Bella from Salad’s advice that has stayed with him: “you need to do things differently for people to realise that something has changed.”
- The creation of the Co-Owner Charter, inspired in part by Rubicon’s house rules, and why it sits closer to a contract people make with themselves than a company policy.
- The deliberate language shift to “co-owners” everywhere, the short-lived but useful “we includes me” reminder, and why language matters more than it first appears.
- The peaks and troughs of three financial years post-transition, the surprise uptick in inbound enquiries, and the question of what story Grapevine tells once EO itself becomes “wallpaper.”
- The uncomfortable but honest reflection on the colleagues who may never fully embrace EO, and why that is not a reason to stop doing the right thing.
Quickfire highlights
- Employee ownership is: empowering.
- Biggest EO surprise: the community, and how generously people share without expecting something back.
- Book (sort of) recommendation: ‘You Are The Media’ by Mark Masters, a newsletter and community Liam credits with reshaping how he thinks about marketing and audience.
- Confessional: a moment of honesty about the first couple of years at Grapevine, when the company was changing faster than he could keep up with, and the long road from “drowning” to finding where he could contribute best.
Barry and Liam also touch on transaction, transition and transformation as three distinct phases of an EO journey, and why the last one only really becomes visible looking back.
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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.