Lindsays advises Harvey Map Services on transition to employee ownership

Douglas Roberts, partner in Lindsays’ corporate team, provided legal advice to Harvey Map Services for setting up an Employee Ownership Trust to secure the future of the business.

Harvey Maps is a 40-year-old, Doune-based professional mapmaking service for enthusiasts of outdoor pursuits such as orienteering, hill walking and mountain marathons. Douglas worked on the transition to employee ownership for the company alongside Co-operative Development Scotland (CDS), the arm of Scottish Enterprise which promotes collaborative business models.

An Employee Ownership Trust has been formed and will hold 90 per cent of the shares on behalf of the employees.

Susan Harvey, co-founder of Harvey Maps, said: “In due course we will want to retire.

“However, having formed and developed this business into a market leading company over the past 40 years, we didn’t want to sell to a competitor and see our life’s work absorbed into another company.

“We wanted a succession solution which gave the company, the jobs and the brand a good chance of continued independent existence following our retirement; employee ownership ticked all of our boxes.”

Mr Roberts added: “We are delighted to have assisted Harvey Map Services in their transition to employee ownership, which offers an ideal solution to their succession planning.

“This structure will allow the company to protect the future of their business as well as providing all the well-established benefits of the employee ownership model including higher profitability, productivity and employee engagement and wellbeing.”