June 2021 – Unipart Group has been named as one of the UK’s leading companies for employee ownership. The global manufacturing, logistics and consultancy group based in Oxford placed fifth on the 2021 Employee Ownership Top 50.
The Top 50 list compiles the fifty largest private employee-owned companies in the UK. It is researched and published by RM2, in partnership with the Employee Ownership Association (EOA).
Unipart has consistently ranked in the Employee Ownership Top 50 since the formation of the report in 2014. The company is well known for its high levels of employee engagement. Each year, Unipart measures employee engagement through an online survey. The results have been benchmarked against leading companies and consistently achieve top-quartile results.
Nigel Mason, Director of the RM2 partnership, said: “It is encouraging that despite a difficult year for many businesses, we can see an increase in both combined sales and employee numbers for the Top 50 employee-owned businesses by size.”
Deb Oxley, Chief Executive of the EOA, said: “Through the stories of our members, we are seeing a trend of resilience, good governance and communications building trust in the business which helps to respond to business shocks, and clear and impactful focus and health and wellbeing that is supporting individual resilience during these testing times. Something that sets them in good stead to be inclusive and resilient in their plans for recovery and renewal.”
As part of the Top 50 the business contributes to the positive performance of the top end of the employee ownership sector. There is a combined sales of £21bn, an increase of 6.7%, and a 2.8% rise in the number of combined employees – 180,405.