Leading Lives is pleased to announce they feature in this year’s Employee Ownership Top 50 largest employee-owned companies in the UK at number 36.

The Top 50, compiled annually by employee ownership advisers RM2 in partnership with the EOA, covers independent UK-registered companies that are at least 25% owned by their employees on a broad basis, together with UK subsidiaries of non-UK companies that are more than 75% employee owned.

As part of the Top 50 the business contributes to the positive performance of the top end of the employee ownership sector, with a combined sales value of £20.1bn, a combined workforce of 178,000 and a 5% median increase in operating profits.

While the mean increase in productivity in 2019/20 is up 6.9% compared to a performance in the UK over the past two quarters that has risen by 0.3% then fallen by 1.1%. The snapshot which covers the period of May 2019 and May 2020 is expected to look quite different next year because of the event of Covid-19, including the trend of 66% of these businesses having no debt.

The Top 50 list, complied by RM2 in partnership with the EOA, covers independent UK-registered companies that are at least 25% owned by their employees on a broad basis and UK subsidiaries of non-UK companies that are more than 75% employee owned.

Nigel Mason, Director of the RM2 Partnership said:

“The Top 50 employee owned businesses have maintained a high level of performance in this 2020 snapshot, which breaks just before the impacts of the Covid-19 crisis can be felt.

“With 66% of the Top 50 having no debt this could be a contributing factor in how they are able to weather the storm, depending on the demand in their sector.

“We are continuing to see a changing in the size and the shape of the sector: once reliant on a few large employee owned we continue to see a substantial growth in employee ownership transitions at the point of succession amongst SMEs. As more businesses realise the benefits of this business model, we are very confident that the sector will continue to grow.”

The top findings from the report include:

Combined sales: £20.1bn (Up 4.3% on a like-for-like basis)
178,000 combined employees (of these 100,000 are in companies with new or deemed EOTs) – up 1% on a like-for-like basis
Median change in operating profit: Up 5%
Mean change in productivity (value added per employee): Up 6.9%
Percentage of companies with no net debt: 66%
There are five new entrants – Greenwich Leisure Ltd, Seetec Business Technology Centre Ltd, Gemporia Partnership Ltd, Allford Hall Monaghan Morris Ltd and First Community Health & Care CIC

Tony Carr, Managing Director of Leading Lives says:
I am proud of the supports and services that we deliver to some of Suffolk’s most vulnerable people, but also that our company is in the top 50 of national Employee Owned businesses. As well as being employee owned, Leading Lives is a not for profit social enterprise providing a range of support to vulnerable people and their family carers across Suffolk and into neighbouring counties.

There are 470 business that are employee owned in the UK – a sector that contributes over £30 billion to UK GDP. The sector grew by 28% in 2019. Despite this, the sector’s profile is comparatively low and its potential contribution to the economy is under-exploited as a result.

Deb Oxley, Chief Executive of the EOA, said: “We consistently see the employee owned Top 50 outperform the rest of the UK economy when it comes to productivity.

“As the UK makes it plans to build back better, there is a lot that can be learned from these business when it comes to having better governance and oversight and better productivity driven by engaged employees as well as rooting jobs in the regions for the longer term and helping to reduce income inequality.”

To view the full Employee Ownership Top 50 list, please visit:

https://employeeownership.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Employee-Ownership-Top-50-2020.pdf

*Like-for-like means that each of the 50 companies on the list are compared against their own prior year results