Inside the business where there are no bosses, everyone is paid the same and there is always a free lunch

STEPPING into the canteen at Suma, an infamous line from Wall Street pops into my mind. “Lunch? Ah – you gotta be kidding. Lunch is for wimps.” Such was the creed of corporate raider Gordon Gekko in the Oliver Stone film.Well, they must all be wimps in this place. They love lunch here. A free meal is part of the deal at the biggest workers’ cooperative in the UK. And, cover your ears Mr Gekko, it’s all vegetarian.

The wholesale cooperative was set up in 1975, in Leeds. Reg Taylor was working as a delivery driver for Jonathan Silver, taking clothes to his menswear shops, when he started delivering wholefood on the side. After various moves, the business ended up in Elland, Halifax, where Suma had a turnover last year of £42 million. It is now outgrowing that site.

My guide for the visit is Sheree Hatton, 26, who has worked here for four years. Like everyone else, she multi-tasks. “Today I am brand co-ordinator so I co-ordinate the team,” she says. “Yesterday I was invoicing orders in the warehouse.”

So, Sheree, if this is a cooperative who’s the boss? “Nobody is the boss – all of us are the boss.”

The cooperative has a “flat” structure with a roster of people elected to sit on the management committee for two years. There is also a functionary coordinator team, similar to heads of department. And, remarkably, everyone is paid the same: an equal net pay rate of £11.98 per hour, which for a five-day contract (40 hours) is a gross salary of £31,981.

The six founders of Suma set it up on vegetarian principles but being a veggie isn’t mandatory. “There’s quite a high number of us who are meat eaters,” says Sheree. “We just alter our diet to the nice food here.”

Suma adheres to a three-part bottom line of “people, planet and profit”. “We are a commercially viable business, but we’re also a co-operative. We’re here for the people who work with us.”

Suma has 161 members, or fully fledged employees, and 50 short-term workers, and just won the Grocer Gold award for Employer of the Year, normally the province of the big food boys.

Almost everyone I meet does two or three jobs, apart from the IT guys. Some wear baggy shorts and T-shirts (“Don’t write that I dress like this. I wear a shirt and tie when I go out on the road.”). In the warehouse we climb metal stairs to an office where the lorries are controlled (the unavoidable use of diesel is offset by the planting of trees). Then we gaze over a huge hangar filled with every vegetarian foodstuff you could think of, and a few more besides, and countless other products. Electric trolleys busily buzz around.

Tour over, Sheree introduces me to five of the members…

Jenny Carlyle, 30. Time at Suma: Nine-and-a-half years.

Jenny wanted to be a musician and went to music college, but thought music “way too hard for too little pay off”. Standing at a bus stop with her guitar on her back, she saw a Suma truck pull up outside her local deli, and wondered what they would be like to work for. Now almost a 10-year veteran, she works in personnel and also takes a walk on the cold side.

“Monday I work in the fridge, checking off the orders. I’m a bit of a cold-store geek, so on a Wednesday I’m usually picking off orders and checking orders in the freezer. I like cold stores, especially the freezer because you can shut the door and nobody wants to go in there. One thing I’ve never got my head around is so-called standard business in that hierarchy of pay and structure. All that ‘I’m paid more than you so I’m better than you’ attitude.”

Johnny Spencer, 38. Time at Suma: 20 years.

Johnny works in new business and as a driver delivering to East Anglia. He likes the driving, even with the 2.30am start, and loves settling down at night in the sleeper cab. “When you’re parking in a lovely spot like Southwold on the beach, it’s a nice end to the day.”

Growth, he says, has been “phenomenal” and benefits have increased. “It’s got so big you don’t know people you work with as well any more. But it’s a good success story and I hope it’s going to continue.”

When driving he thinks like a boss. Recently he spotted a business opportunity with a new bakery in Framlingham. “When it’s your own company, you have to keep your eyes open.”

Stephen Newton, 60. Time at Suma: 12 years.

Stephen is the functionary coordinator for the sales team, on maternity cover, and also works in export. He ran a catering business in London and at 40 trained to be chef. Then he moved home to Yorkshire, setting up a bistro in Halifax.

“Then this job came up and I thought I’d give it a go for a couple of years. And twelve years later I’ve got the best of everything. A nice little place up here and a job I absolutely love.”

Stephen often visits the Far East. “Hong Kong a really big area for us and Singapore as well. We take care of where we source our products from, and we take care of the producers as well. And we take care of each other, much as we might fight and argue like any family members.”

Andi Butterworth, 52. Time at Suma: 11 years.

Andi, a former management consultant, is a sales team co-ordinator and is also helping develop a new website. “The thing that attracted me to Suma was the management structure was entirely different.”

She loves how the cooperative works, or at least most of the time. “One of the frustrations is the pace of decision-making. Because I did consultancy one of the things I looked at was process, procedure and efficiency. Why can’t we make that process more efficient?”

But could she go back to the old ways? “No, I couldn’t do that.”

Laura Kairo-Mills, 29. Time at Suma: Became a full member four weeks ago.

Laura started in the warehouse as a temporary worker. Now she works in finance, operates the reach machine in the warehouse, and works in stock relocation. She was puzzled at first by the cooperative methods. “I went to one of the quarterly meetings and it went straight over my head.”

Now she appreciates the ethos, enjoys multi-tasking and likes the way her voice can be heard. “If you’ve got an idea it’s listened to. I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else now.”

After that it is time for lunch, cooked today by Julius Nicolson, who also works in marketing. Cauliflower curry, a dahl, spiced roast potatoes and rice. And a tray-bake sponge topped with raspberry jam and cream. Every mouthful is delicious.

“Isn’t it hard cooking for 120 people?” “No, it’s great fun. I love it. Hardly like work at all.