Curium Solutions changes its ownership model
Curium Solutions, the leading consultancy business based in Birmingham, was formed in 2008 by Co-Founders Adam Farrow, James Farrow and Andy Dawson. By adopting a people first approach and continually investing in the culture of the organisation they have enjoyed years of continuous growth. Today, they are announcing a change to their ownership model, that perfectly aligns with the culture of the business.
Adam Farrow explains, “we are delighted to announce that we are setting up an Employee-Owned Trust, which will own a majority stake in the business. Our team has always been central to the success of Curium. After such a successful year against such a challenging market backdrop, we decided that now was the right time to move to this new model, recognising the immense contribution that every employee makes to our success. Apart from setting up the trust, nothing else will change. The team and board remain the same, backed by our ambition to grow, develop new services and support many more customers for years to come.”
“Culture is everything” added James Farrow, “and this new structure gives us a very firm and secure platform for growing Curium in the future. The interests of the team, ourselves and our customers remain perfectly aligned. We’ve always believed that looking after your team is the best way of ensuring that you will deliver the best outcomes for your customers.”
Having set up in 2008, during the last recession and successfully navigating the last 12 months of lockdown, they remain positive about what lies ahead. “Everyone is excited by the opportunity to grow the business and take advantage of the many opportunities that are unfolding as the world unpauses” explains Andy Dawson. “As Patrons at the Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, what better way to acknowledge the importance of your team by announcing this new ownership model during the Chamber’s Growth Through People campaign. There’s plenty to get on with.”
Tracy Westall, Chair of the Board has been working with the team for several years now, and with a number of other Non-Executive roles, understands the challenge of setting the right culture. “My first impression of Curium was that its culture is a superpower with a just cause of empowering potential for customers, so the decision to become an EOT is an obvious evolution to the story. What better way to encourage the potential of the team to drive growth and success whilst maintaining the valuable and irreplaceable culture, values and spirit of the business.”
So, what do the team think?
Emma Taylor, Chief People Officer and Board Director explains, “the EOT is perfect for us for many reasons but for me it’s how it enhances our already very strong team culture. We already benefit from our team acting and behaving like they own our business. Now they do and will be directly rewarded accordingly. We’re rolling up our sleeves and are very excited about the future.”
Curium used RSM as their advisors. Mark Taylor, Regional Managing Partner commented, “We are absolutely delighted to have supported the Curium management team with this project. Our specialist team are seeing an increased amount of work on EOT projects as more and more businesses are attracted to this model of ownership. It was great to put in place a structure that supports the growth plan of such an exciting local business and fellow Patron of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce.”
