Last year we finalised the transfer of ownership of Espace to our employees

An Employee Ownership Trust was created with all current employees qualifying as beneficiaries of the Trust and its annual distributable profits.

“As good as the people we employ”

Tony Shally, Espace’s MD commented that “employee ownership just seemed the right thing to do at this stage of Espace’s development. We are as good as the people we employ. We need to retain and attract the highest calibre of people. Establishing a Trust which distributes fairly the profits of the business to the people that make the business successful shows our employees how much we value them and clearly differentiates us from our competitors. When people now speak to any member of the Espace team, they are now speaking to an part owner of the business not just an employee.”

The first employee owned freight forwarding company in the UK

John Lewis lead the field in employee ownership in the UK with its 90,000 strong workforce. With only 300 employee owned businesses currently registered in the UK, Espace is the first UK freight forwarding / 3PL company to adopt this new ownership structure.

In the decision making process to move to Employee ownership, we joined the Employee Ownership Association (EOA) in May and sought its advice. Deb Oxley, CEO of the EOA, said: “We congratulate Espace Europe on its transition to employee ownership. The move to employee ownership will secure the future of the business, its employees and its contribution in the local economy, while retaining the brand, ethos, values it holds dear, for many years to come.”

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