The Yorkshire company is now 100% owned by the EOT, which holds the shares on behalf of the employees as the beneficiaries. This gives all employees a direct vested interest in 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, to avoid risking debt or strain on the business.
Founded in 2005 by Mike Parkinson, Triton Construction provides general contracting and construction services and directly employs approximately 55 people out of offices in Liversedge and Warrington.
Turnover for the year ending 31st March 2020 was £32.4m (2019: £55.6m). Pre-tax profit was £1.3m (2019: £2.6m). Despite the slow-down, the company has no formal debt or borrowings and maintains positive bank balances and expects to maintain turnover at around £35m to £40m this financial year. The target is to achieve £100m turnover within the next few years.
Mike Parkinson, chairman, 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 northwest office in Warrington, 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.”
Project highlights for Triton in the last 12 months include the ongoing Premier Inn hotels extensions framework, the refurbishment of the Royal Liver Building in Liverpool, the Big Yellow self-storage building in Manchester and a new testing facility for automotive engineer David Brown Santasalo in Huddersfield.
Triton is not the first construction company to transfer ownership to its employees this year. In May the ownership of London's McGee Group, a £100m turnover business founded in 1959, was transferred by brothers Michael, Brian and John to an employee ownership trust. [See our previous report here.]
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