Services / Transitioning to employee ownership
For owners weighing up succession. We help you decide whether employee ownership is the right answer — and if it is, we manage the whole transition.
Employee buyouts explained
An employee buyout is a business sale in which employees become the owners. In the UK, this is most often achieved through an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT): the trust acquires a controlling shareholding and holds it for the long-term benefit of everyone employed by the business.
The employees do not normally have to invest their own money or negotiate individual share purchases. Instead, the company funds the trust's purchase using available cash, future profits and, where appropriate, external borrowing. The former owner may receive part of the price on completion and the balance over an agreed period.
An EOT buyout is different from a management buyout. A management buyout transfers ownership to a smaller management team, usually with personal investment and external finance. An EOT holds the shares collectively for the wider workforce. Which route is right depends on the owner's objectives, the leadership team and what the business can afford.
Read how an EOT purchase works, or compare the main routes in our business succession guide.
The decision
An Employee Ownership Trust is not a goal. It is one possible answer to a harder question: what should happen to your business when you step back?
So that is where we start — with your commercial objectives, not with a structure. What do you want for the business, for your people, and for yourself? What does the business need to be worth to you, and by when? How involved do you want to remain? Only once those answers are clear does it make sense to compare employee ownership against your alternatives: a trade sale, a management buyout, family succession, or simply carrying on.
If employee ownership is not the best fit, we will tell you — early, before you have spent much money finding out.
What the work involves
Every transaction is different, but the shape is broadly this. We project-manage the whole of it, so you are never coordinating advisers yourself.
01 — Feasibility
We test whether the business can support the transaction: profitability, cash generation, leadership beneath the owner, and the realism of the price. This stage often costs the least and matters the most.
02 — Structure & valuation
The shape of the trust, the percentage sold, the valuation basis, and how consideration is paid — upfront and deferred. A structure that works on paper but strains the business is not a structure that works.
03 — Funding
Most EOT purchases are funded from the company's future profits, sometimes supplemented by external debt. We model what the business can genuinely afford, and arrange external funding where it helps.
04 — Tax
For qualifying disposals made on or after 26 November 2025, 50% of the gain is chargeable to Capital Gains Tax and 50% is relieved. An EOT-controlled company may also pay qualifying employee bonuses of up to £3,600 per tax year free of Income Tax, although National Insurance still applies. We advise on the detailed conditions and clearances.
05 — Governance
The trustee board, the company board, the trust deed and the employee voice — designed together, so the ownership works in practice and not just in the documents.
06 — Implementation
We coordinate the legal documentation — working alongside regulated law firms where reserved legal work is required — and help you explain the change to your employees in a way that lands well.
Afterwards
The first year of employee ownership sets the tone for the next twenty. Many clients keep us involved after the transaction — advising trustee boards, supporting the first annual cycle of governance, or simply being on the end of the phone when an unfamiliar question arrives.
Some appoint us as independent trustees. Others need nothing further at all. Both are fine; the point is that continuing support is there if you want it, from the people who designed your structure.
Before you speak to anyone
Start with the guides below, or browse our employee ownership FAQs.
Tell us about your business and your timescale. We will give you an honest first view — including whether employee ownership belongs on your shortlist at all.