MERCHANT FOCUS: HARLOW BROS
voice and the opportunity to share ideas. I’ve always believed that a lot of the solutions to problems you come across in business can be sorted by talking about them with the people who’re dealing with those issues day in, day out.”
the spans are, the overall budget. We can offer tailored solutions for that specific customers’ requirements.”
Sabey says the depth of experience the group has means Harlow Bros can see the bigger picture because of that specialist knowledge. “We offer things that the customer may not have thought about, or realised that they will need at that stage. I tend to refer to us as the biggest independent timber merchant that you’ve never heard of if you are outside of the Midlands.”
Apprentice supporter Sabey joined Harlow Bros in 2016 as an area manager for the trading branches, having worked for a national merchant for some time. “I started way back in my career as an apprentice, which is one of the reasons why I am such a big advocate of the apprenticeship programme that the BMF is running. This industry has a great number of people who have done really well despite not going down the traditional university, graduate route, but instead via other routes, and just developed, I think that is a great message to get out there, that you can progress, you can do well and achieve if you get involved, work hard, learn your skills and apply yourself whilst being open to development.”
Development conversations are a common aspect of working at the Harlow Group, Sabey explains. “With 537 people across our four divisions and 13 sites, we need to think about bringing the next generation of directors and managers on. It’s important to have those conversations now.”
It was the need to develop the business in the future which took the group to the idea of the Employee Ownership Trust, he adds. “One option would have been to sell up totally, allowing the owners to take out their equity,
but the family members do live very locally to the business. So there’s a whole legacy thing to think about, a real emotional buy-in to businesses like this; it’s not always that easy to just sell up. The family would still drive past the branches every day, and, I think, didn’t really want to see them with someone else’s name over the door. So, the idea of the Employee- Owned Trust was floated past us.” Sabey had worked in a co-operative business before and really liked the way it’s not a traditional set-up, more of an inverted triangle, and thought the idea definitely had a lot of merit. “It does require a different way of thinking, as it’s much more of a consensus way of running a business than the traditional top- down management,” he explains. “What you don’t want is for innovation and ideas to get lost, a sort of death-by-committee, if you like. It’s a great method for retaining the identity of the business, keeping the people committed by giving them a stake. In fact, there is evidence to show that, where they get the engagement right, EOT businesses do outperform traditionally owned businesses”
There is an employee council structure, then a Trust Board, overseen by an independent trustee chair, Helen Hyde, who was HR director for the John Lewis Partnership, so she understands the employee ownership model right to her core. There’s also a Harlow family member that sits on the Trust Board, and employee representatives from each of the four sectors of the business. These are voted in and sit for two years.
Sabey says: “We meet quarterly to review the business; the finance director and I are invited along to share how the business is doing. Communications then filter through those representatives from the four business divisions, offering a real conduit for information both up and down the chain. That gives employees a
April 2025
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Sabey describes the overall structure as rather akin to the way a school Board of Governors operates. “The Trust Board holds the Trading Board to account for the well running of the business, and ensures that the business is run for the benefit of the employees. If the business does well, and there are surplus profits that aren’t being reinvested into the business, then there is the opportunity to share those amongst the employees. We have been fortunate that for the last couple of years we’ve been able to do that. In turn, that creates its own belief, and the realisation that every day efforts can make a real difference.”
Employee variances
Although all the employees are owners of the business, not everyone is equally engaged with it, just as in any business. Generally, in EOT businesses, 25% of employees tend to be really fanatical about the set-up, living and breathing the business, while 25% that just want to come to work do their job and go home. Sabey says: “In the middle, you get the really interesting bit. In any business on any given day you get some people who feel really positive about the job and the business, and other days when they may not. That’s the exciting point for me, making sure that everyone is as engaged as they want to be.”
He continues: “I think the model that we have works, and it gets easier when people can see tangible evidence that the business is a bit different and that they are able to have their voice and see things happen.” It’s this employee voice and visibility that has proved the biggest difference to the group, Sabey believes.
He says: “The ability to contribute, and to receive the recognition for that contribution, really matters to people. That recognition might simply be a conversation, or it might be via our awards scheme, or some other way. The thing we’ve noticed is that the more people understand about the EOT structure, the more the business almost becomes self-policing. Our people recognise that with this structure, they have a voice, but also a responsibility to themselves as owners of the business and their colleagues as co-owners. As we’ve gone on, we’ve seen more and more the desire to get under the skin of what makes the business tick. . We’re on that journey together, as employees and directors.” BMJ
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