Ownership of A Place in the Sun indie Freeform Productions is to transfer to its staff, almost 30 years since the company’s launch.
Current owners Antoine Palmer and Ann Lavelle, who founded Freeform in 1999, will hand over the company to a new entity, Freeform Productions Employee Trust Ltd, which has pledged to run it for the benefit of employees and freelancers.
An employee ownership trust board will govern the company, alongside its existing board, which now adds creative director Michelle Heeley and head of production Linda Glendinning.
Last month, sports indie Whisper outlined plans to create a similar scheme after Sony Pictures Television sold its minority share.
Freeform is one of Channel 4’s top suppliers through the high-volume returner A Place in the Sun, which has been part of the broadaster’s daytime schedules over 21 series and more than 1000 episodes since 2001.
The format, which was recently extended to 2028, has also spawned spin-offs including A Place in the Sun: What Happened Next? and Jasmine's Renovation in the Sun as well as a live property exhibition.
The Chorleywood-based property-oriented lifestyle specialist is also behind C4's Coast vs Country and BBC2's The Great Hotel Escape and upcoming 5 commission Bomb Squad: Zero Hour.
Freeform continues to operate a sister label, Double FTV, run by Heeley.
Palmer said he hoped that in due course, employee ownership “will pioneer a new way of working in factual television, in which everyone involved shares in the success of hit television programmes.
Lavelle added: “Handing the company to the employees feels like a wonderful way to say, ‘thank you’. I know the team at Freeform will make this transition a brilliant success.”
