Imagine a future where we are not simply passive consumers, but active, invested owners of the businesses that put food on our tables. While company ownership structures might not seem the most thrilling topic at first glance, they are hugely important.
Let’s look to football as an example. While elite football clubs are often controlled by wealthy individuals, there are a few clubs, often lower down the football pyramid, where fans have taken matters into their own hands and bought a stake in their club’s future through collective ownership. Now picture that same energy unleashed across our food system, with people coming together, taking control and shaping the future of what and how we eat.
Who truly owns our food businesses? For many independent retailers, the answer is simple: you do. Progressive companies like Riverford Organics (which is entirely employee-owned) and Yeo Valley (with partial employee ownership) show that empowering staff to share in the business’s success drives innovation, loyalty and a genuine sense of purpose. Democratised ownership can transform employee lives, but can also revolutionise business models and outcomes.
Across the sector, co-operatives and social enterprise models are proving that when purpose is woven into ownership, everyone benefits.
Yet, ask most people who owns the brands lining their supermarket shelves, or the outlets that stock them, and you’ll most likely be met with a shrug. Ownership structures can feel remote, complex and unchangeable. But just because something feels out of reach doesn’t mean it’s beyond our influence.
Our connection to food businesses
Even if you don’t recognise yourself as a brand ‘owner’, your connection to food businesses might run deeper than you think. Millions of people are indirect owners of food and drink businesses through their pension funds, often without realising it. That matters because the food sector has profound impacts on health, society, animals and the planet.
Pension funds and other institutional investors are powerful forces in the grocery sector. Nest Pensions and the People’s Pension – two of the UK’s largest pension providers – have over 20 million members between them. Many of these have shares in major food and drink companies, such as Tesco, Coca-Cola, Nestlé and Associated British Foods.
If you’re contributing to a workplace pension, you have a say, however indirect, in the direction and values of these listed businesses, and even in whether your money should be invested in them at all. That’s real power – and it’s time we started using it.
Should we care who owns our biggest food and drink brands? Absolutely. Ownership isn’t just about profit; it’s about stewardship – enriching people, supporting communities, and protecting our environment for the long term. By engaging with your pension fund, talking to your employer, and taking an interest in company ownership, you become a force for positive change in the food system. Ask where your pension is invested and what values those investments represent.
Ownership is so much more than shares; it’s about influence, responsibility, and legacy. Let’s use the power and privilege of ownership to drive meaningful change in our food system.
Dan Crossley is executive director at the Food Ethics Council
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