The NFC buy-out—A new form of industrial enterprise

When the Conservative Government's plans for floating the National Freight Company, Britain's biggest road freight business, on the Stock Exchange were delayed by economic factors, senior management in the business put together a scheme to buy NFC. In what became Britain's largest employee buy-out, with over 10,000 employees and pensioners putting up £6·187m of the purchase price, a new form of industrial enterprise was created. In this article Sir Peter Thompson, leader of the buy-out team and now Chairman of the National Freight Consortium plc, describes the background to the buy-out, the complex financial, legal and communications activities involved, and the way in which employee-involvement has become an integral part of the operation of what has proved to be a commercially successful business providing exceptional returns on investment.