Signed on 1 February, the agreement saw 100% of the group’s shares taken on by the Key Production Group Trust.
Founded in 1990, the company is comprised of four brands: Key Production, which creates bespoke and special edition releases of music, sustainable luxury packaging firm Think Tank, music and media firm Breed Media, and Brighton-based design studio Modo Design.
Karen Emanuel, founder and CEO of Key Production, has seen her business grow from her own efforts as intermediary between artists and vinyl pressing plants and cassette manufacturers, to one of the largest agencies of its kind in Europe.
Acquiring Think Tank, Breed Media, and Modo Design in 2011, 2015 and 2016 respectively, Key Production has grown into a £24m firm with past clients including Radiohead, Nick Cave, and Alt-J.
Emanuel said: “After just over 33 ⅓ years of being the sole director and owner at Key Production, it’s time for me to secure the next 33 ⅓ years.
“I’m truly excited to do this by setting up an employee ownership trust, to empower the people that have helped me build the company and amazing culture that is Key Production, namely the staff. I will be staying on as CEO to transition us into this next stage of growth and development.”
Emanuel will likewise head up the newly formed trust as CEO, alongside Lisa Edwards, the group’s head of production and 28-year member of the company, and Rebecca Mills, a partner at BBS Law.
The transition comes in a boom time for the business, with vinyl record sales growing in 2023 for the sixteenth consecutive year, and CD sales recording their strongest sales in 15 years.
Neil Gibbons, the group’s chief operating officer, said: “Today, we're writing a new chapter in our story.
“By becoming an employee-owned trust, we're not just securing the future of the company, but the future of an amazing group of people in our staff and our incredible company culture.
“We’re strengthening the outstanding service and knowledge that we have become renowned for and our customers have become accustomed to over the last 33 ⅓ years.”
Key Production Group is a certified B-Corp. It employs 57 across the group.
