Co-ownership Solutions provide expert advice and guidance to organisations considering co-owned models and help develop existing co-owned organisations to become successful and great places to work. We are a Limited Liability Partnership owned by Partners with extensive knowledge and experience of co-owned organisations gained from working within and supporting a number of co-owned businesses and not for profit organisations.

Newcastle United Supporters Trust (NUST) seeks to benefit both the football club and its supporters by channelling the passion of Newcastle supporters into a forward thinking organisation that is a legally constituted, democratic, not for profit Supporters Trust of Newcastle United.

I was asked to join Baxi to help them guide companies undergoing a transfer of ownership to an employee owned structure. As a Partnership Advisor my role was to work with the existing business owner to identify a suitable future ownership structure, advise on and agree a value for the business, and to formulate a strategy to achieve this.Through my network of contacts I was also able to arrange financing of these deals and necessary legal advice for both the transfer of ownership and the provision on finance.

This Centre is sponsored by the Wales TUC and is funded mainly by the Welsh Assembly Government. The Centre established the first ever Employee Buyout in the Bus Industry in Gosport in 1987, and I was recruited to develop its services in this area. All of this work was fee earning for the Centre.During the period 1989-93 I was Lead Advisor to employee buyouts of MFP Ltd in Tredegar (80 employees), and of Greenberg’s Glass Ltd in Liverpool (60 employees).In 1994 I was Lead Advisor to the miners in their successful buyout of Tower Colliery from the Government. The total deal cost was £9,000,000, with 250 miners investing £8,000 each. In the same year I also advised the workforce in the buyout of Centre west Buses Ltd in London and in London United Bus Company. These deals were £13m and £15m respectively. Employee Benefit Trusts were also installed.From the year 2000 onwards I concentrated on developing the Centre’s Business Succession Services as a fee-earning activity for the Centre. I wrote the first Paper outlining the need for such a specialist fund to assist employee and management buyouts. Finance Wales Ltd (part of WAG) now operates this Fund. More recently I also wrote a Proposal for a specialist Co-operative Development Fund outlining the need for new forms of mezzanine finance to be provided to assist in buyouts.As Business Succession Advisor I was responsible for developing and promoting the service throughout Wales. In each enquiry I negotiated a deal between the owner and the buyers, prepared business plans with 3 year Financial forecasts, raised the finance from various funders, and prepared Heads of Terms with both parties, before instructing lawyers and accountants to complete on the Deal.

Beginning in 1982 as a small voluntary body with no full staff, I developed the organisation to become one of the largest Co-operative Development Agencies in the UK. We provided services to over 60 Co-operatives in the Northeast, employing 12 full staff. The abolition of its main funder, Tyne & Wear County Council, led to its closure,