Profit Sharing Scheme

Joseph argued for a profit sharing scheme for some time and it was finally introduced by the company in 1923. This was one of the last of Joseph’s worker reforms. In his Christmas letter in the December 1922 edition of the Cocoa Works Magazine he wrote: “I am glad that the past year has witnessed the adoption by the Central Works Council of a Profit-Sharing Scheme. The fact that all over eighteen years of age will become interested in the financial results of each year’s trading should form one more bond in the close union between all those who contribute to the success of our undertaking.” In practice the scheme proved not to be not useful due to Rowntrees low profits during the period following its introduction and a period of acute trade depression.