
Why Employee-Led Buyouts Are a Smart Succession Move for SME Manufacturers
Explore the reasons why manufacturing businesses struggle with succession and how employee-led buyouts make be the perfect solution here!

Explore the reasons why manufacturing businesses struggle with succession and how employee-led buyouts make be the perfect solution here!

F&B manufacturing is hands-on. Margin-conscious. Operationally intensive – making it a good fit for employee- or management-led buyouts (ELBOs or MBOs).

Packaging & print manufacturing is capital-intensive, process-driven, and built on trust making Employee-Led Buyouts (ELBOs) a strategic succession solution.

Discover what makes succession in heavy industry and fabrication businesses so complex and why employee-led buyouts are a natural fit!

Healthcare businesses aren’t just built on compliance, contracts or billing systems. It’s built on trust, culture, & people. Learn why internal succession can work!

If you want to exit with confidence and secure your legacy for your technical services business — an Employee-Led Buyout (ELBO) may be the right solution.
Blue Harbour Capital is a specialist advisory firm helping privately owned businesses design and execute founder-friendly succession plans including management buyouts, employee transitions, and other tailored exit strategies.
Blue Harbour Capital’s inaugural newsletter is packed with succession insights, events, resources and tools, guest articles & more for Australian SMEs looking into employee-led succession.
This contributed article from Mahoneys, authored by partner Rhys Williamson, covers the legal foundations for employee led succession. It touches on issues such as contracts, intellectual property, regulatory approvals, documentation and governance when ownership changes hands, and offers a practical checklist for founders considering ELBOs, EOTs and related structures.
Giles’ piece explains how the Valloop and Guy Carpenter structure transforms institutional balance sheets into capacity for employee led buyouts in SMEs with 10 to 250 staff and turnover between 2 and 50 million pounds. He explores why banks and traditional lenders often struggle to fund internal buyouts without heavy personal security, and how surety backed structures can give founders vendor certainty while allowing employees or management to acquire without risking their homes.
Blue Harbour Capital, in partnership with global employee ownership platform Valloop, today announced the launch of Australia’s first complete ecosystem for employee-owned business succession.
This contributed piece is authored by Ben Lightfoot, an experienced CEO and business coach. It explores the importance of coaching for both founders and management teams when planning succession and navigating an employee led buyout. The article also acknowledges how Blue Harbour collaborates closely with independent business coaches while remaining focused on advisory and post transaction support rather than providing coaching as a direct in house service.
Why it matters for the economy, regional communities, and the