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Durham marketing firm Voicentric handed over to company's 100 employees

Voicentric's staff will now be eligible for shares in the company

(L-R, standing) Voicentric director James McVicker, trustees Tim Hardman and Connie Twyman (Trustee) and Voicentric's managing director Ali Turner (seated) Mary Jordan and Paul Williams, founders of Voicentric(Image: Unknown)

A marketing agency in Durham has been taken over by its staff after becoming an Employee Owned Trust.

Around 100 members of staff at Voicentric will soon be eligible for a share of the company’s profits after its founder Paul Williams decided to hand over the company to his employees.

Mr Williams said: “We know that our people are the heart of the business and what governs its success. Many of our team have been with us for several years and we felt it only right that they should have a stake in the ongoing success of the company.”

The company works across three offices in Durham city and specialises in marketing laboratory and analytical instruments for the chemicals market. The company was founded in 2002 and is capable of marketing products to businesses around the world as 40% of its staff are multi-lingual, with staff capable of speaking all major European languages as well as Mandarin and Arabic.

Commenting on the Voicentric’s conversion to an Employee Ownership Scheme, managing director Ali Turner said: “We are all really excited by employee-ownership and the culture change it brings. Being 100% employee owned means that everyone has a vested interest in our success, we are determined to take every advantage of the opportunity we have.”

Deb Oxley, CEO of the Employee Ownership Association, said: “We congratulate Voicentric on its transition to employee ownership supported by EOA Specialist Advisor Postlethwaites. By widening ownership of the business to its employees Voicentric is securing the future of the business, including its ethos, values and employees, while rooting itself locally for the longer term to the benefit of the community which it serves.”

Voicentric is one of only a handful of companies to have adopted the Employee Ownership Trust status, which is famously used by the John Lewis Partnership.

Washington audio equipment manufacturer Canford Audio also recently adopted the status after the company’s owner Iain Elliott began making preparations for his retirement from the company.