Defence tech specialist Engage Technical Solutions moves to employee ownership

Published by

Peter Davison

Chippenham-based defence tech specialist Engage Technical Solutions has moved to an employee-owned model.

The firm specialises in providing solutions to the defence and security sectors, offering expert advice and support in areas including logistics information, supply chains, and support engineering.

The team recently moved from Bowman House in Royal Wootton Bassett to new premises at Forest Gate in Chippenham.

Introduced by the government in September 2014, the Employee Ownership Trust model aims to encourage more shareholders to set up a corporate structure similar to the John Lewis model, to facilitate wider employee ownership via an indirect holding.

Womble Bond Dickinson acted for the shareholders of Engage Technical Solutions Limited in the sale to the trustees of a newly formed Employee Ownership Trust.

Advice was provided to the shareholders by tax partner Jeremy Smith and corporate law specialist Stacey Hall, both based at WBD’s Newcastle office. Managing associate Angelene Chester also provided advice on, and obtained clearances required by, the National Security and Investment Act 2021 which came into force at the start of the year.

Employee ownership specialist RVE Corporate Finance provided the corporate finance advice to the client.

"We are proud to announce that Engage Technical Solutions has become an Employee-Owned Trust (EOT)," said the firm in a statement.

"Putting the future success of our company firmly in the hands of our fantastic people, supported by our managing director David Gagen and new board of directors Natalie Woods, Karina Pearce and John Foster.

"Over the past few years David has been considering the best way to secure the future of the company while preserving Engage’s independence and the very special culture that has been created which means Engage can continue to deliver superb work to our clients – the Engage Way.

"We would like to thank our team for all their support, hard work and dedication which has enabled us to launch Engage as an Employee-Owned Business.

"A big thank you as well to our partners and advisors who have provided phenomenal support, advice and guidance especially Womble Bond & Dickinson and RVE Accountants.

Jeremy Smith at WBD said: “I am delighted to have been part of the team to help Engage Technical Solutions through this process and support their ambitions to move towards employee ownership.

“The team at WBD boasts a wealth of experience in corporate law across a variety of sectors, and so are able to offer comprehensive advice and support with a range of transactions.”

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.