Houlder is celebrating a decade of successful Employee Ownership.  On December 14th 2007,  the company’s founding management team retired and current Chief Executive Officer Rupert Hare (pictured) established employee ownership.

Rupert commented “A formal Employee Benefit Trust provided a strong framework for ongoing sustainable growth. The plan worked and the number of Houlder trust beneficiaries has more than tripled to 84 since the days when the SugarBabes dominated the charts.”

Today, Houlder is a key player in the global marine and offshore supply chain. Projects vary from supplying offshore wind installation equipment and upgrading drilling units off the coast of the Orkney Isles to supervising the construction of the RRS Sir David Attenborough polar research vessel and advising UK Government on fleet operations and vessel procurement.

The forecast turnover for 2017 shows growth of 270% over ten years of challenge and uncertainty in the offshore industry. This success has been due, in large part, to encouraging talented people to stay within the business and continually enhancing in-house skills.

The company is a proud member of the Employee Ownership Association (EOA). The association  is a not for profit and politically independent organisation that champions, promotes and provides insight into the business case for employee ownership.  Houlder’s Marine Equipment team was highly commended by EOA judges at the 2016 Employee Ownership Award for Innovation. This was in recognition of the positive technical and commercial impact their equipment (main picture) had in the offshore wind market.

At the time, Gianpaolo Benedetti, Houlder Project Manager for Innovation & Product Development (and Employee Benefit Trust representative) commented “We are primarily engineers and designers so, to an extent, innovation comes naturally. However, Houlder’s employee ownership status is an extra incentive to keep an eye on the future. Developing new ideas benefits the whole organisation.”

The last ten years has seen commitment rewarded by sustainable growth. Houlder can look to the future with confidence.