Payments broker transfers to employee ownership
Elland-headquartered Accept Cards has become employee owned, with all the shares transferring to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT).
The business, founded by CEO Richard Bradley in 2005, is an independent payments broker.
It provides advice and payment solutions working alongside some of the biggest names in financial services including Handelsbanken, Metro Bank, Square, Barclaycard, Clover, Lloyds Cardnet and WorldPay.
In a transaction understood to be the first of its kind in the UK payments sector, the EOT will see the 14 employees take ownership of the firm.
Staff members David Mills, Jo Kava and Sheenah Bond will become trustee directors. Bradley will remain in his position and expects to do so for at least six further years.
He said: “This is the natural next step for our business and a really exciting time in the history of Accept Cards.
“The business has secured continuous year-on-year growth, which has only been possible because of the hard work and dedication of everybody working here.
“Transferring to an EOT gives our team much-deserved recognition and autonomy after being pivotal to our success to date.
“I’m proud that we have a long established, settled team who have welcomed the opportunity to become an EOT with open arms.”
Accept Cards’ decision to become employee-owned comes seven years after the business launched a profit share scheme for its employees, enabling staff members to directly benefit from the success of the firm.
Advisors on the EOT deal were Justin Smith of Kirk Newsholme and Ewan Hall of Baxendale Employee Ownership.
Bradley added: “I’d like to thank Ewan Hall and Justin Smith for helping us every step of the way and making the process so straight-forward.”
Accept Cards projects a three-fold increase in turnover in the next three years, and in that time expects to hire a further six people.
Bradley, who established the firm after more than 25 years in the banking sector, said: “We were the original disruptor in this sector, which moves very fast with the constant implementation of new technology.
“That’s not going to slow down any time soon, so there’s no better time to take the business forward together as an EOT.”
Accept Cards customers process more than £2bn in card transactions annually.
The broker supports businesses of all sizes with payment solutions including merchant services, card machines, online payments, e-commerce solutions, electronic point of sale (EPoS), open banking, charity donations and more.
