Employees take over ownership of construction firm

Triton Construction is now owned by its employees after the board of directors transferred ownership to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT).

The Liversedge-based company is now 100% owned by the EOT, which holds the shares on behalf of the employees as the beneficiaries.

This means all employees have a vested interest in the future success of the business while the existing board of directors continue their roles with no change.

During the process, Steve Bolton has retired and two of the original non-executive directors have exited with their share purchase being deferred over a number of years, therefore placing no debt or strain on the business.

Founded in 2005 by industry heavyweight Mike Parkinson, Triton Construction provides general contracting and construction services and directly employs over 55 people across its offices in Yorkshire and the North West.

For the financial year to March 2019 Triton Holdings reported a 50% increase in turnover to around £58m.

For the financial year to March 2020 it achieved a turnover of £36m as a reflection of Brexit and the General Election and despite COVID-19 expects to maintain between £35m to £40m turnover this financial year.

The overall business objective is to achieve £100m over the next few years with the turnover evenly split between Yorkshire and the North West.

Parkinson said: “In 2016 we carried out a partial MBO and since then have brought in a superb senior team including our managing director Paul Clarkson.

“The business is in a strong and healthy position with no borrowing or debt and it would be easy for us to sell to a third party but we didn’t want to do that.

“We place great value on the contribution from our team and concluded that an Employee Ownership Trust was the right model.

“It offers the mutual benefit of protecting the future of the business under the control of motivated employees with an interest, and all of the goodwill that engenders, as well as generous exemptions to capital gains tax on the value of the company shares. With an EOT, everybody benefits.”

Chris Quinn who was recently promoted to regional director responsible to lead the North West office, said: “This presents a really exciting opportunity for all of us at Triton with drive and ambition to succeed at work.

“It means that we can directly contribute to productivity and overall success of the business as a team with total transparency and of course more tangible rewards.”

Triton Construction manages projects from £200,000 to £10m offering a full suite of construction services both traditional and design and build, across new build including civils, fit out and refurbishment.

Clients range across all sectors including education, retail, leisure, commercial and industrial with a particularly strong public sector bodies client base.