LONDON — Independent communications agency Brands2Life has changed its ownership structure, with an Employee Owned Trust (EOT) acquiring a majority of the shares for the agency’s 140 staff across the UK and the US.

Co-founders Giles Fraser and Sarah Scales will continue to lead the 20-year-old business, and will remain the agency’s largest individual shareholders after the EOT.

Employee ownership trusts are still a rarity in the UK, and Brands2Life is only one of a handful in the UK PR industry; Cirkle also became a majority EOT in its 20th anniversary year, in 2018, and other agencies to be majority employee-owned include Tangerine and Clear Marketing Communications. Richmond & Towers became entirely employee-owned after its sale to an EOT last year. 

The new structure will give the wider agency team greater involvement in the business and enable Brands2Life to give employees a share in its future value.

Fraser told PRovoke Media: “We’re delighted and we think it’s really good news for Brands2Life. It’s a lovely way of recognising all the brilliant work has done, and moving the business on to collective ownership in a way that means we can stay founder-led – because Sarah and I love running the business – and independent.”

He added: “We were already set up much like an EOT, with extensive staff feedback mechanisms and a very employee-centric culture, so nothing will change in terms of how the business is run.”

Scales said: “At a time when agencies are being challenged more than ever, we think that collective ownership gives us the best possible platform to grow and thrive in the years ahead. In our 20th year we’re really pleased that we’re able to take this next step.”