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Sporting goods retailer Decathlon has announced a major expansion of its employee ownership programme, launching the “Decathlon Seed” initiative to give eligible employees €2,000 (£1,700) in free shares or equivalent assets.
The worldwide programme is designed to expand employees’ shared ownership across the company, and provide a direct stake in the future of the company for its workers.
The company said the scheme is the outcome of more than a year of collaborative work involving all subsidiaries, local teams, and family shareholders.
Each eligible teammate will receive an allocation that vests after a three-year period, which will evolve in line with the company’s collective performance during this period.
Employee shared ownership has been part of the business since 1967, with more than 56,000 employees holding shares in the company, representing 54% of the group’s workforce. This initiative comes as Decathlon celebrates 50 years in business.
Julien Leclercq, chairman of Decathlon, said: “Employee share ownership has been part of Decathlon’s DNA for decades. Today, we are taking a new step forward in our value-sharing policy. By giving our teammates the opportunity to participate more directly in the future value creation of the company, we are choosing to build a sustainable project together, founded on trust, commitment, and collective success.”
Javier López, chief executive officer of Decathlon, added: “With The Decathlon Seed, we are investing in the future by building on one of Decathlon’s core values for the past 50 years: sharing the value we create together. The initiative is the result of collective work carried out with all our markets and our family shareholders, and reflects our conviction that value is created on the ground and should be shared with those who create it.”
