Kindred offers all employees a stake in firm

Kindred Group has introduced a new employee share plan scheme, enabling all staffers to become a shareholder of the company as part of a long-term incentive plan.

The All Employee Share Plan was launched last week by the operator’s head of talent, Liam Reese, as part of an ongoing project first introduced by the Stockholm-listed firm in 2015.

The original scheme enabled nearly 200 employees to take a three-year bonus as shares rather than cash, which Kindred claimed had led to them receiving an uplift of c. 50%.

Gavin Hayward, chief HR officer, told EGR Intel that Kindred hoped the new scheme would enable all the operator’s staffers to share in the company’s current growth.

He said: “At Kindred we feel a key element of our success is the ability to align individual goals to company goals, which also reflects one of our core values being ‘We are Individuals United’.

“Giving everyone an opportunity to be a shareholder is a great way to foster this alignment.

“Owning Kindred shares is a way to own part of our company and to share in the success and profits of the organisation.”

Kindred Group recently reported a 54% year-on-year rise in 2016 gross winnings revenue, another all-time revenue high for the operator despite “tough comparables” against 2015.

It also recently announced a deal to acquire 32Red for £176m as part of the operator’s strategy to significantly increase its UK footprint and build on its multi-brand strategy.

Kindred’s share price was SEK 86.80 on the Nasdaq Stockholm at the time of writing.