Recruitment business becomes employee owned

A recruitment specialist based in Wakefield and Nottingham has made the move to employee ownership.

Pratap Partnership was founded in 2019 by Nik Pratap with fellow founders and shareholders Lorraine Pratap, Nicola Worrow, Gillian McBride and Elise Walsh. Joe Ingham then became an equity partner in 2022.

The business has grown by 50% in each of the following three years. It currently has a team of 20 who specialise in the recruitment of executive, finance and professional disciplines across a range of sectors.

100% of the shareholding will transfer to an Employee Ownership Trust.

Nik Pratap will remain in his current role along with fellow director Lorraine Pratap and chair Bill Henry.

They will be supported by Claire Screeton as finance director and Alex Mostyn-Jones as strategic project director. Karen Caswell steps up to be a director of the EOT.

Nik Pratap said: “Establishing Pratap Partnership with the other shareholders has been the proudest achievement of my career so far.

“The process of nurturing and expanding our current team has deepened that sense of accomplishment.

“Completing this transaction to place the ownership of the company in the hands of our employees is an achievement that is hard to put into words. It has been the most rewarding and exciting experience that I can imagine.

“We have had a lot of fun building our brand, developing our strategy and working with our clients & candidates. This change will allow us to continue with our forward momentum.

“The experience of going through the EOT transaction has allowed me to think a lot more about our future legacy, our purpose and to develop a business that continues to create value for our team, our clients and our candidates for many years to come.”

Pratap Partnership was advised by Andy Irvine and Adam Ames at Shorts and by Paul Trudgill and Russell Bainbridge at Knights.