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# How a worker co-op outlasted the collapse of London's print trade
- URL: https://content.changingthenarrative.media/how-a-worker-co-op-outlasted-the-collapse-of-londons-print-trade/
- Published: 2026-06-30T13:28:16.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-01T20:22:34.000Z
- Description: Cherry Haynes and Siôn Whellens of Calverts on hiring sceptics, refusing to compete on price, and why control matters more than ownership.
- Author: Chris King
- Tags: #How (Not) To Do Business, #Podcasts, Alternative Models, Reframing

This week on *How (Not) To Do Business*, Chris King sits down with Cherry Haynes and Siôn Whellens of [Calverts](https://www.calverts.coop/?ref=content.changingthenarrative.media), the East London design and print co-operative [founded in 1977](https://www.workers.coop/resource/case-study-calverts-north-star-press-ltd/?ref=content.changingthenarrative.media). Calverts has no managers and complete pay parity — everyone earns the same — and it has outlasted almost every other printer in London.

## Listen 🎧

## Watch 📺

**You can also listen to this episode on* [**Apple Podcasts*](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/calverts-how-a-worker-co-op-survived-when-the/id1896916857?i=1000774851265&ref=content.changingthenarrative.media)**,* [**Spotify*](https://open.spotify.com/episode/1BPQSQKVhVRGDjeQgUgo08?si=0%5FTXN5zBR7GMoZkf3RKOxQ&ref=content.changingthenarrative.media) *and other podcast apps or watch it on* [**YouTube*](https://youtu.be/r7T9byEP3m0?ref=content.changingthenarrative.media)

Clerkenwell and then the East End were once full of print shops. Most are long gone. Calverts is still a proper printing outfit, and in this episode Cherry and Siôn dig into why. They explain why the co-op is happy to hire people who are sceptical of co-ops rather than true believers, how it survived the collapse of London's print industry by refusing to compete on price, and why they care more about who *controls* a business than who *owns* it.

**What we get into:**

- Why Calverts recruits for curiosity and good questions, not co-op credentials — and why scepticism is welcome
- Surviving London's print decline by being the best rather than the cheapest
- Overcoming the old "upstairs/downstairs" divide between the office and the print room
- A 16-year average staff retention — and the hardest decisions, when someone has to leave a place with no line managers
- Borrowing grievance and membership processes from other co-ops, including [Suma](https://content.changingthenarrative.media/inside-europes-largest-equal-pay-workers-co-operative/) in Yorkshire
- Managing informal hierarchies, succession, and handing over knowledge as long-serving members step back
- The structural and cultural barriers to co-ops going further: access to capital, and the deep belief that capital — not work — makes the world go round
- Co-operatives versus Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs): ownership versus control, and what gets lost
- Practical first steps for anyone thinking about starting a co-op or converting an existing business

**Chapters:**

00:00 — Show introduction

01:14 — Introducing Calverts

02:27 — How Calverts works as a co-op

03:07 — Who they hire — and why

06:56 — Surviving London's declining print industry

09:37 — How the culture has changed

12:57 — Staff retention and tough decisions

17:35 — Learning from other co-operatives

20:17 — Managing informal hierarchies

23:00 — New generations and systemic change

25:54 — Barriers to wider co-op adoption

31:02 — Hope and agency in the face of systemic change

35:19 — Co-ops vs Employee Ownership Trusts

40:57 — How to get started

44:13 — The business myth Calverts challenges

45:44 — Further resources

**Resources mentioned:**

- [Calverts](https://www.calverts.coop/?ref=content.changingthenarrative.media) — the East London design and print co-operative
- [workers.coop](https://www.workers.coop/?ref=content.changingthenarrative.media) — the Worker Co-op Federation: case studies, how-tos, explainers and an open forum
- [Stir to Action](https://www.stirtoaction.com/?ref=content.changingthenarrative.media) and its [Centre for Democratic Business](https://www.democraticbusiness.org/?ref=content.changingthenarrative.media), including the [21st Century Social Clubs](https://www.democraticbusiness.org/our-work/21st-century-social-clubs?ref=content.changingthenarrative.media) programme
- [CoTech](https://www.coops.tech/?ref=content.changingthenarrative.media) — the UK network of tech co-ops — and its [open forum](https://community.coops.tech/?ref=content.changingthenarrative.media)

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