Leeds-based Woodlands Home & Garden Group moves to employee ownership

Founded in 1913, Woodlands is a manufacturer of timber garden buildings and a processor of machined timber. It employs more than 160 staff working across three sites in Leeds and Bradford.

The company operates through four key brands: Woodlands Garden Spaces, Woodlands Timber, Woodlands DIY Superstore and its direct to retail, garden building brand TigerSheds.com.

In a statement, the company said: “With a strong desire to continue its own growth journey and having seen large scale consolidation across the industry, the business has opted to make the move into employee ownership with the formation of a new employee ownership trust (EOT)

“The deal is structured to maintain the long-term stability of the business with current chief executive Ross Moran and managing director Ged Lees both continuing in their roles, and the existing senior leadership team all remaining in place to achieve the growth plans of the business.”

Mr Moran said “There has been a huge amount of interest in this sector over the last two years, and as one of the established market leaders, Woodlands has received a number of offers of investment or in some cases offers to take a controlling interest in the business.

"While this is extremely flattering, it comes at a time when the company is still part way through our brand journey, and we are acutely aware of how important it is for such a historic business to be very selective with regard to strategic partnerships. Instead, we have used this period to assess all of the growth options available to the business and we felt that the EOT model was perfect for us.

“It seems fitting to set up this structure whereby the future of the business rests with the loyal staff who have been the key to our success. This is a long-term deal designed to provide stability and a defined succession framework, but effectively on a day-to-day basis it will be business as usual with the same management team continuing the drive towards our existing ambitious vision.”

Mr Lees added “ We are looking at the EOT as an important phase in our next stage of growth, and we are actively looking at acquisition opportunities and are in live discussions about strategic partnerships across our supply chain and beyond.”

Woodlands was advised by legal professionals Adrian Ballam and Adam Kurowski (corporate), Andrew Facer (trusts) and Paul Christian (tax) of Ward Hadaway, with tax, accounting and valuation advice provided by KPMG, with a team led by Nathan Potton, Liz Hunter, Brendon Stansfield and Jonathan Riley.

Mr Potton said: “More firms are transitioning to EOTs as they seek to preserve their independent cultural identities, while rewarding and developing employees.”