£1 million-turnover civil and structural engineering consultancy offered to workers
Alistair Christie and Richard Gillespie of Christie Gillespie Consulting Engineers built the business after both leaving a multinational in 2015.
The company is currently spread across offices in Dundee, Lothians and Fife, with plans to expand the team and geographic spread in the near future.
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Christie Gillespie, who took on the £ 9m contract for the award-winning 4-North project in central Edinburgh, has just won a £ 18m contract for the major renovation and expansion of the Edinburgh One office building on the Exchange District of the capital.
Christie Gillespie Consulting Engineers employees transitioning to employee responsibility.
Christie Gillespie Consulting Engineers employees transitioning to employee responsibility.The business owners turned to Ownership Associates, the specialists in employee ownership, to implement their long-term succession plan, in which all 20+ employees will participate in the company through an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT). It is hoped that the move will leave a lasting legacy on the loyal team to whom the owners have ascribed the company’s success.
Co-founder Gillespie said, “This is a move that has taken six years to complete. From the very beginning, Alistair and I were determined to leave a lasting legacy to our employees that focused on our core values of providing exceptional customer-centric service.
“We were fortunate to have an extremely high retention rate among our employees, although only one colleague left us in the six years of operation. This commitment and this drive have strengthened our decision to take the path of employee participation. “
Gillespie and Christie began their journey in 2015 after they both left WSP Global. The couple worked from working on large projects like the Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert, Edinburgh Gateway Railway Station and RBS Gogarburn HQ to their new venture, which initially worked on small domestic projects.
The company has built its workload and customer base and works regularly with companies such as Muir Group, Cala Homes and Knight Property Group.
Christie said, “We had the idea of introducing a successor to the company when we started, we just didn’t know what it would be.
“We quickly decided not to sell to another company as this meant the possibility of a change in staff or job loss and posed a risk to the company’s ethos and culture, which is based on strong customer focus and communication.
“Over the years it became clear that some form of the employee participation model was our first choice, but we didn’t really know how it would work.
“We asked Scottish Enterprise for assistance and they introduced us to Carole Leslie from Ownership Associates.”
Leslie added, “Christie Gillespie is a company that always puts people first, so it felt like the natural evolution for this engineering company to start an EOT.
“Under the leadership of Alistair and Richard, the company has grown stronger and grown into an ever-growing competitor in the Scottish construction market.
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