A civil engineering firm in Birmingham has become the latest in the city to transfer to an Employee Ownership Trust structure.
Fitzgerald Contractors is now 100 per cent owned by its 120 staff.
The Aston-based company, which celebrates its 75th anniversary next year, specialises in delivering infrastructure, highways and public realm schemes across the UK.
This latest deal follows the 2013 buyout of the £30 million-turnover business by managing director Nick Coley from Bouygues UK.
Mr Coley and the existing board of directors will remain in place in their current roles, with employee ownership providing greater opportunities for staff to influence business decisions through the formation of an employee council.
An Employee Ownership Trust is a government initiative giving business owners the chance to sell their shares to a trust free from capital gains tax.
Birmingham-based corporate finance firm Orbis Partners and West Midlands law firm Talbots have both switched their ownership structures to the trust model in recent weeks while Alcester-based software firm Vectric made the move a year ago.
Mr Coley said: "We consider that an Employee Ownership Trust model is ideally suited to Fitzgerald's philosophy and the thinking behind employee ownership has businesses exactly like ours in mind.
"This is a very exciting stage in the company's history and safeguards Fitzgerald's future for the benefit of all employees.
"The transition acknowledges the hard work and efforts over many years and gives all employees an opportunity to share in our continuing success.
"The employee ownership route will allow us to provide greater opportunities for succession from within the internal management team over the coming years - an ethos that has been encouraged and served us well in recent times.
"With the current skills shortage, staff retention and the ability to attract new staff is critical to our ongoing success and by creating an ownership culture we can more effectively incentivise our employees and continue to deliver sustainable growth.
"We are confident the move will safeguard the future and independence of Fitzgerald Contractors for many years to come and will enable all employees to directly benefit from our collective achievements."
