Lyon Equipment completes transition to employee owned trust

Lyon Equipment, the distributor of outdoor and cycling gear, has completed on an earlier pledge to become an employee owned trust.

Having ruled out a sale of the business, the move now enables founder Ben Lyon to retire, aged 82, along with long-serving staff Carol Nicholls, Tina Benson and Frank Bennett.

Ben wrote of the transition of ownership to the staff “We have always been fiercely independent, and plan to remain so. After becoming a Limited Company we sought to keep our independence by developing an internal market for our shares, keeping ownership 100% in the hands of employees.

“However, in recent years we came to the realisation that the majority shareholders were ageing rapidly and likely to leave within a short time frame so our plan would simply not continue to work. What to do? Selling the Company was ruled out, so we decided to enhance our employee-owned status by vesting ownership of Lyon Equipment into an Employee Ownership Trust.”

Jonathan Capper will continue in his current role as Managing Director, supported by Paul Cornthwaite as Commercial Director, Rick Cockayne as Financial Director and Martin Bergerud as Petzl Agency Director.

The board of trustees will now consist of long-serving members of staff; Michelle Airey and John Samways, to be joined by Jon Armitage, who has acted as an adviser to Lyon Equipment in past restructuring.

Ben’s business began in 1967 with the creation of a caving ladder and has since gone on to be the UK representative for international cycling labels such as Ortleib, Salsa, Teravail, Tubus, Hydrpak and most recent to the additions, Industry Nine. The Lyon Equipment business remains actively involved in mountain rescue efforts, alongside its broader distribution into the outdoor markets.