As of May 2020, Carallon is owned by an Employee Ownership Trust, acting for the benefit of all current and future employees, and through elected employee trustees giving all staff a say in major strategic decisions.

‘On day one, Carallon was set up as a business owned and run by its original seven employees,’ MD Richard Mead explains. ‘Although we’ve got bigger, we wanted to make sure that ethos was preserved and that there was a clear structure in place for the long-term future of Carallon. Employee ownership fosters a spirit of teamwork and less hierarchical management structures, so it fits with our style very well.’

Carallon was founded in 2004, growing from seven to more than 70 employees, and spawning spin-off companies Pharos Architectural Controls, Brompton Technology and new start-up SixEye. Pharos and Brompton have both won high-profile awards for their products, with Brompton Technology recently winning the Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2020: International Trade.

All seven of those original founders still work for Carallon today, including Nick Archdale, Chris Hunt and Richard Mead who remain its board of directors. ‘While the other directors and I are remaining at Carallon’s helm for the foreseeable future, we wanted to be pro-active about putting a structure in place that wasn’t reliant on us,’ Mead continues. ‘Crucially, we wanted to empower our team, a great number of whom have been with us for many years and have been instrumental to Carallon’s success. The EOT allows all Carallon employees to feel invested in the company’s growth and to share in its successes going forward.’

Employee Ownership Trusts are an alternative to traditional mergers and buyouts that might try to change the direction, values or culture of a company. They provides safety and security for employees, allowing a company to be employee owned without individual employees having to make a financial investment or take on any risk.

The process works by the founders selling their shares to a trust that is set up solely for the benefit of the current and future employees of Carallon. The employees don’t own the business directly, but while they remain employees they get some additional benefits and rights because the business is owned by a trust acting on their behalf.

‘Over the past 24 months, the shareholders have been discussing what would be the right long-term structure for Carallon,’ adds Commercial Director, Chris Hunt. ‘Employee ownership is a model being heavily promoted by government and adopted by lots of companies right now, for good reason – there is compelling evidence that it improves productivity and the working environment. After a five year period of rapid growth, the EOT was the natural next step for our development as a business.’

‘We have dedicated ourselves to the design and creation of innovative, reliable, future-proofed products that solve real-world problems across a variety of end industries,’ says Director Nick Archdale. ‘Everything about the transition to being an employee-owned company is us applying those same principles to our company structure.’

The board responsible for managing the trust is chaired by Mike Wood, a well-known and well-respected figure within the entertainment technology industry, who runs his own consulting service and has advised Carallon on intellectual property matters for many years. At various times he has been elected to lead trade associations on both sides of the Atlantic and has a huge breadth of experience to help guide Carallon in the next phase of its journey. He is joined by board trustees Chris Hunt, Leo Khale (Director of Engineering), Sarah Darby (Group HR Manager), and Philip Smith (Engineering Manager).

‘In a way, it is getting back to the original vision for Carallon of a company owned and run by its employees, with a robust structure that ensures employees feel in control of their own destiny,’ Mead concludes. ‘After lots of careful preparation, it was not part of the plan to be concluding this transition just as much of our industry was reeling from the impact of the pandemic. But thanks to lots of effort and teamwork from all our employees we are coming through this most challenging year and making a strong start to this new chapter for Carallon.’

More: www.carallon.com