The business does not have to stop when you do.
Most owners see two options — sell to someone who will take it apart, or close it down. There is a third. I take a majority stake in owner-managed construction, engineering and manufacturing businesses and run them. You keep a quarter and a share of what it becomes. Same name, same staff, same site.
Chris Bramhall. BSc Civil Engineering. Thirty years delivering construction and engineering projects, most recently as a business unit lead and construction director. I am not a broker and I am not a fund.
Why this page exists
Most good businesses are sold badly, or not at all.
If you own a business turning over several million pounds and you are getting close to stepping back, you have probably had the letters. Brokers who want a retainer. Funds who want a platform. Competitors who want your customer list and none of your people.
The usual outcomes are a trade sale that quietly closes your site within two years, a private equity deal built around an exit before your notice period ends, or nothing at all — the business winds down because no one inside it could afford to buy it.
None of those are what most owners actually want. In my experience almost every owner-manager in this sector wants the same three things: the people looked after, the business still trading in ten years, and a price that reflects what they built.
That is what I am offering to do. Bought properly, then run by someone who has spent his career on sites like yours.
Where to start
Worth reading before you talk to anybody.
What I look for
Being specific saves us both a wasted afternoon.
If your business sits outside this, I would still rather you called and I told you honestly that it is not for me than have you wonder. What I cover locally sets out the area and the trades in more detail.
The structure
I take 75% and run it. You keep 25%.
It is still a sale — capital gains, a share purchase agreement, a completion date. What differs is what happens afterwards. You take less at completion in exchange for a share of what the business grows into, and the deferred part of your price is secured so it does not depend on how trading goes.
Being straight about the 25%: it is a share of what the business becomes, not a pension. In the early years the company is servicing acquisition borrowing and there may be no dividend at all. The full structure is set out here, including the limits.
How it happens
Five steps, and you can stop at any of them.
A phone call
Fifteen minutes. What you have built, what you want to happen to it, and whether I am the right person. No documents, no NDA, nothing shared with anyone.
A conversation in person
Usually at your place, usually a couple of hours, usually a walk round. I want to understand the work, not just the accounts.
Numbers, under NDA
Three years of accounts and a management view of the current year. I build a model and come back with a range and my reasoning — not a number pulled out of the air.
Heads of terms
What you take at completion, what is deferred and how it is secured, how much you keep, and what your role is afterwards. Written plainly enough that you do not need a lawyer to understand it, though you should have one.
Diligence, completion and handover
Your advisers and mine, typically three to four months. Then a real handover — customers, pricing, systems — for as long as the business needs. I pay my own costs whether or not we complete.
How I differ
The difference is what happens after completion.
| Me | A trade buyer | Private equity | Closing it | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who runs it after | I do, full time | Absorbed into their team | A hired MD | Nobody |
| What you keep | 25% and the upside | Nothing | Sometimes a small stake | Nothing |
| Your site | Stays | Often consolidated | Reviewed | Closed |
| Your team | Stays | Duplicate roles cut | Depends on the plan | Redundant |
| Time horizon | Indefinite | Indefinite | Three to five years | — |
| What they want | A business to run | Your customers | A return | — |
| What happens to it | Run and kept | Absorbed | Prepared for resale | Ends |
None of those other routes is dishonest. They are just built for a different purpose, and it is worth knowing which one you are talking to.
A fifteen minute call, and nothing goes any further than the two of us.
If you are thinking about what happens to your business in the next few years, it costs you nothing to have the conversation. I will tell you plainly if I am not the right buyer.
Everything you tell me is confidential. I will not contact your staff, your customers or your suppliers.