Calverts provides high quality, environmentally conscious communications design, printing and web services to a wide range of commercial, third sector, government and community organisations in the UK.

Activities range from copywriting, illustration, branding and graphic design to digital, litho and wide format printing, mailing and distribution. Products include every type of print collateral, from brochures, magazines and stationery to information packs and exhibition materials.

Calverts is London's leading ethical and environmental printer. The company holds Forestry Stewardship Council and Greenmark certification, as is working towards the ISO 14001 environmental management accreditation.

Calverts is a common ownership co-operative, incorporated as an Industrial and Provident Society. All employees are eligible for membership, and each member has a single, non-transferable voting share.

Business vision

To be recognised as the UK's leading co-operative provider of communications design and printing services.

Business philosophies and beliefs

It is part of human nature to want to improve the conditions of our work. As a co-operative, Calverts enables its employee members to take part in the democratic control of their working environment and life. We strive for better, fairer and more dignified ways of working.

A co-operative is an autonomous association of people united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise. Calverts therefore operates according to the seven co-operative principles:

1. Voluntary and open membership
2. Democratic member control
3. Member economic participation
4. Autonomy and independence
5. Education, training and information
6. Co-operation among co-operatives
7. Concern for community

Business Values

Self-help

Self-responsibility

Democracy

Equality

Equity

Solidarity

Honesty

Openness

Social responsibility and caring for others

Business mission

To provide the highest levels of quality and service in communications design and print services

To provide secure, meaningful and properly compensated work for the members of the co-operative

To generate wealth in order to improve the quality of life of the members

To develop a culture and practice of democratic self-management in the workplace

To support the sustainable development of our communities

Business Information

Date established:: 1977
Contact details: Sion Whellens, Client Services Director, sion@calverts.coop, 020 7739 1474
Business structure Help Basic business structures under UK law include: sole trader, partnership, private company limited by shares, private company limited by guarantee, community interest company, public limited company, private unlimited company, and franchise.: Co-operative (Industrial & Provident Society)
Address of company headquarters: 9-10 The Oval, London, E2 9DT
Countries of operations: UK
Countries where goods and/or services are sold: UK
Size of workforce: 15
Financial year Help The 12 months used as a company's accounting period. This may or may not be a calendar year.: 1st October to 31st September
Market capitalisation Help The market value of a public company's issued share capital, i.e. the number of shares multiplied by the current price of those shares on the stock market. For private companies, 'company value', estimated by the book value of all assets or by using comparable companies, is a more appropriate term. This information is not compulsory.: GBP 262,000 before goodwill
Turnover (last financial year) Help Income that the business receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. Also known as total revenue, total sales or the top line.: GBP 1,380,000
Profit (last financial year) Help Gross profit is the total turnover minus cost of sales. Net profit is the turnover minus all expenses, including payroll and tax. Businesses are asked to state gross profit, net profit or both. This field can be left blank.: GBP 31,000
Details of owners: Common Ownership Co-operative with 15 members, each holding a one pound, non-transferrable voting share
Directors' other business interests Help Businesses are asked to list other directorships held by their directors and company secretary: Sion Whellens is a non-executive director of Co-operatives UK Ltd

Goods and Services

Calverts services include:

Graphic and communications design

Branding, corporate identity and campaigns

Illustration, photography, copywriting and editing

Web development

Reprographics

Printing - litho, digital and wide format

UK and worldwide mailing and distribution

Free samples, dummies and advice

Calverts products include:

Websites and e-newsletters

Brochures and catalogues

Annual reports and reviews

Newletters and magazines

Flyers, leaflets and posters

Stationery, folders, packs, binders

Books

Exhibition and display materials

A full range of recyled papers

Calverts is dedicated to providing integrated communications design and print that is financially, environmentally and socially sustainable.

As a Forest Stewarship Council certified printer, we can also demonstrate that our clients' projects are printed using paper made from well-managed forest products; from 100% post-consumer recycled paper (made in paper mills which are themselves FSC accredited); or from 'mixed source' FSC papers. Our clients can use the FSC claim on their own publications.

Business Responses

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Corporate Governance

Does your company have a corporate governance statement appropriate to the organisation?

Question developed with Manifest

Rationale for question

Corporate governance combines both protocols and structures by which an organisation is directed, operated and controlled. A company's corporate governance structure specifies the distribution of rights and responsibilities of the board, its managers, shareholders and other stakeholders.

Corporate governance may appear to be a complex and technical matter, but it is really about the basics of the business organisation. It establishes corporate accountability and transparency, and sets out directors' duties with regard to properly and honestly managing the business.

Poor corporate governance has resulted in major corporate failures. Probably the most high-profile case - amongst several in recent years - was that of Enron in 2001. Enron had grown very rapidly to become one of the world's largest companies, but collapsed when it emerged that a handful of senior executives had colluded in perpetrating massive fraud. (Read a brief description of the Enron fraud here on Wikipedia.)

Corporate collapses can have critical adverse effects on other businesses, cost jobs, wipe out investments and empty pension funds that employees depend on in retirement.

Every company, irrespective of size or sector, requires clear lines of communication, responsibility and accountability. All companies will have systems and processes of management, but smaller companies may have less formal methods.

Defining Terms

'A corporate governance statement appropriate to the organisation' is a statement detailing a company's approach to corporate governance and an adequate overview of the systems and processes it has in place to ensure the proper and honest management of its operations. Good practice is to make such statements publicly available. An adequate overview will depend on the size and complexity of the organisation.

A 'public company' is a company whose shares can be bought and sold by the general public through a recognised stock exchange.

Primary and Secondary answer requirements

ANSWERING YES

PUBLIC companies must:

describe the regulatory environment in which they operate, e.g., any legal requirements pertaining to governance structure;
provide an adequate overview of the methods by which the business is governed; and
state where their corporate governance statement is published.

PUBLIC companies may:

provide a hyperlink to the statement, if available.

PRIVATE companies must:

provide an adequate overview of the methods by which the business is governed, including information about clear channels of communication, the role of directors, and systems by which appropriate checks, balances and auditing can be carried out.

PRIVATE companies may:

provide evidence of the publication of the governance statement.

ANSWERING NO

All companies must:

state whether they are a public or private company; and
explain why they do not or cannot answer YES to this question and list any mitigating circumstances or any other reasons that apply.

All companies may:

indicate any relevant practices and policies, even if they do not fully address the specifications for answering YES; and
mention any future plans.

DON'T KNOW is not a permissible answer to this question.

NOT APPLICABLE is not a permissible answer to this question.

NO ANSWER YET is only permissible under extraordinary circumstances and then for only a limited period.

Calverts

YES

Calverts has a well-established internal culture of accountability, checks and balances, and recognises the importance of openness and good corporate governance. We are incorporated as an Industrial and Provident Society, and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. We are validated as a bona fide co-operative by our apex organisation, Co-operatives UK.

In 2008, Calverts adopted a model code of governance for worker co-operatives, which we helped to formulate. More a toolkit than a checklist, our code looks quite unlike (for instance) a code for a shareholder-owned corporate, or a charity. The democratic and equal nature of worker co-operatives means that it places as much emphasis on employee engagement and general good business management as on traditional governance issues. The starting point for our code was the 1995 International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) statement of values and principles; our intention was to look at how these principles would apply in the practical business environment of a worker-owned and controlled enterprise, and to lay the basis for more detailed collaborative work on best practice for worker co-ops. A PDF version of the code is available here.

You can find a more in depth piece on the background to the code,in the context of the UK co-operative movement, here.

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