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Coöperative – The Netherlands - 1988 - 673 employees
Transition to steward-ownership in 2012, through stichting Sleipnir

The Odin founders realised right away in the 1980s that they had to protect Odin properly if they wanted to ensure the company's sustainable mission. They chose to give Odin a special structure. The economic ownership was placed in a separate foundation (Sleipnir Foundation) and this meant the founders were no longer owners, but could set the course themselves. The foundation has no profit motive. In 2012, Odin took the next step and became a steward-owned cooperative.

The Odin founders swam against the tide and have often enough been called crazy. But Bakker hasn't regretted it for a moment. As the traditional economy increasingly cracks, attention is growing for the model he and his companions devised in the Netherlands.

Their steward-ownership model can be described as: Neutralised Capital (affiliated to Sleipnir Foundation)

Odin's vision is that with every euro you spend on groceries, you make a choice. And helps determine what the world looks like. When you shop at Odin, you do so at a cooperative with its own shops, a wholesale business, a delivery service and over 150 pick-up points. Odin also has its own apiary and farm. Since its establishment in 1983, Odin has been buying directly from farmers, market gardeners, bakers, butchers, wine makers, pasta makers, chocolatiers and many other quality producers.

"The idea that everything must always yield returns, that is a choice and not a law of nature. That private property is an almost sacred right is not good for society. It's weird that you get ownership of things through inheritance, instead of it being about the responsibility to take good care of those things."

Odin

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