TWO owners of a Scottish civil and structural engineering consultancy have realised their ambition of adopting employee ownership, just six years after founding the company.
Alistair Christie and Richard Gillespie of Christie Gillespie Consulting Engineers have built an annual turnover of more than £1 million, after both leaving multinational WSP Global to start their own business in 2015. They noted that only one employee had left the business in their six years of operating.
Christie Gillespie, which took on the contract of the award-winning 4-North development in central Edinburgh, has just won a new contract for the refurbishment and extension of the Edinburgh One office building, in the Scottish capital’s Exchange district.
The duo have now turned to employee ownership specialist, Ownership Associates, to implement their long-term succession plan. This will see all 20-plus members of staff gain a share in the business through an employee ownership trust.
Mr Gillespie said: “This is a move that has been six years in the making. From the get-go Alistair and I were determined to leave a lasting legacy for our staff which centred on our core values of generating exceptional client-driven service.
“We have been fortunate enough to have an extremely high retention rate amongst our staff, with just one colleague leaving us in the six years of operating. It’s this dedication and drive that has reinforced our decision to go down the employee ownership route.”
Mr Christie and Mr Gillespie in 2015 went from working on major projects such as Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert, the Edinburgh Gateway Rail Station and RBS's Gogarburn headquarters to beginning their new venture initially working on small domestic projects.
They soon began landing bigger contracts with greater workload, regularly working with firms like Muir Group, CALA Homes, Knight Property Group, and Intelligent Growth Solutions, among others.
The business is currently spread across bases in Dundee, the Lothians and Fife, with plans to further expand the team and geographical footprint in the near future.
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