The Rise of Employee Ownership Trusts: What Every Founder Should Know
Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs) are reshaping the UK business landscape and rapidly becoming one of the most attractive options for succession and growth. For founders weighing up exit strategies or planning for long-term sustainability, understanding EOTs is no longer optional. Their expansion creates huge opportunities, but also brings challenges that require careful planning. This is exactly where Still We Grow positions itself as a partner for founders and leadership teams navigating employee ownership.
Accelerating Growth
Since legislation introduced the EOT model in 2014, the number of employee-owned businesses has more than tripled. Projections suggest that thousands more will transition in the coming years, making EOTs a mainstream pathway for succession. This rise reflects more than just favourable tax treatment. It highlights a growing recognition that employee ownership delivers resilience, productivity, and a fairer distribution of value. It also reflects the desire among business owners to preserve legacy, culture, and independence.
Still We Grow was founded in response to this shift. We recognised that the growth of EOTs creates demand for more than just legal and financial advice. Founders and employees need clarity on culture, leadership, and the systems that support long-term value creation. Our role is to fill this gap and make sure companies don’t just transition, but thrive as employee-owned enterprises.
Why Founders Are Turning to EOTs
EOTs are attractive to founders for several reasons:
Tax efficiency: Selling a controlling interest into an EOT can eliminate capital gains tax liability.
Legacy preservation: Unlike trade sales or private equity, EOTs protect the identity and independence of a business.
Employee engagement: Employee-owned firms consistently show lower turnover, higher morale, and greater resilience in downturns.
Increasingly, founders also view EOTs as a way of aligning personal values with succession planning. Rather than handing over control to external investors, they can empower their teams and reward the people who helped build the business. For sectors such as manufacturing, professional services, technology, and creative industries, this ownership model can also be a strategic tool to retain talent and safeguard specialist knowledge.
Challenges and Realities
While attractive, EOTs are not without their complexities:
Financing: Many EOTs are funded from future profits, which requires careful planning and strong financial management.
Governance: Trustees must act in the best interests of employees, which requires robust structures and clarity of roles.
Support gaps: Too many advisory services stop at the point of transaction, leaving leadership teams to manage cultural change and growth without a clear roadmap.
This is where Still We Grow provides a different type of support. We combine advisory expertise with a proprietary data platform that helps leaders benchmark performance, measure engagement, and plan for growth. We also focus on culture, digital adoption, and leadership capability, ensuring that employee ownership becomes a catalyst for long-term success.
Opportunities for Growth
The momentum around employee ownership opens up new strategic opportunities:
Integrated advisory: Founders and leadership teams are looking for joined-up support that goes beyond tax and legal compliance.
Sector-specific approaches: Certain industries, including professional services, manufacturing, and creative sectors, are especially suited to employee ownership because of their reliance on specialist skills and long-term stability.
Employee value: Annual tax-free bonuses of up to £3,600 per employee, combined with a genuine sense of ownership, make EOTs highly competitive in retaining and motivating staff.
For Still We Grow, these opportunities underline our purpose: to become the growth partner for ambitious employee-owned businesses. We are building services that support transitions, but more importantly, strengthen companies in the years that follow. This includes leadership coaching, cultural design, financial planning, and the use of digital tools to ensure clarity and performance.
What Founders Should Do Next
If you are a founder exploring exit options or future-proofing your business:
Understand the model: Learn the financial, cultural, and operational implications of an EOT.
Assess suitability: Consider whether your company’s structure, cash flow, and people strategy align with employee ownership.
Seek holistic advice: Work with advisors who understand the full picture and can support your business before, during, and after transition.
Employee ownership is no longer a fringe option. It is fast becoming a mainstream model for sustainable, purpose-driven businesses. For founders, the question is not whether to consider employee ownership, but how to implement it effectively. At Still We Grow, we believe ownership is only the beginning. The real value lies in what comes next: creating stronger companies, empowered employees, and lasting growth.