Employee ownership: our story

Gripple is 100% employee owned, which means that every one of our employees has a vested interest in it and play a significant part in our growth. Founder of Gripple, Hugh Facey OBE once said: “Look after the people and the business will look after itself,” which is one of the key beliefs within the business.

In our 30th year of trading, we have a proven model for sustainable growth, which is driven by our people. Through that growth, our shared values remain the same and we expect our people to be passionate, team players that are honest and willing to challenge convention.

Being an employee owned business allows us to be flexible and have freedoms that most companies do not. Our culture is unique and defined by our people; as such, we take pride in giving them opportunities to develop skills. We believe in values-based recruitment and ensuring our people embody our beliefs – challenging convention, being team players, having honesty and integrity, having fun in our work and supporting our communities. All of these values are possible because of our employee ownership. To own a share of the business you work for creates a real sense of drive, passion and enthusiasm as each and every one of us benefits directly from our success.

Future proofing is extremely important to us and by bringing people into the business that live and breathe the Gripple culture is crucial in order to deliver future growth. As part of this focus, we offer work placements, apprenticeships and graduate scheme placements to people that want to become part of the team. At this moment in time we currently have 42 apprentices and graduates across the business.

Our annual apprenticeship scheme offers opportunities in a number of areas of the business, and has helped to develop the enthusiastic, skilled work force that we have today.

Unlike a lot of businesses, at Gripple the graduate scheme is a full time, permanent position, which allows the employees to learn and grow within the business. Glenn Bills enrolled on the graduate program in its inaugural year, and now heads up our global product management function, demonstrating the scope for growth when you’re an employee of Gripple.

Kyle Raffo is one of our current graduates. He is a finalist in the ‘Young Manufacturer of the Year’ category at this year’s MX Awards and epitomises the character and ambition of our apprentices: “I joined Gripple in 2007 as the first shop floor apprentice, completing the programme in two years. Today, I’m managing significant growth in injection moulding activities; the next stage of my development is to hopefully become a site leader.”

To find out more about Gripple and our careers opportunities, please go to: https://www.gripple.com/careers/