The Forum of Private Business (FPB) has teamed up with management consultancy Steuer Gregsson to provide discounted succession planning support for family owned businesses.
FPB chief executive, Phil Orford, said: “The importance of family run firms really should not be underestimated – we need to start seeing growth in this area as being intrinsically linked to the future health of the UK economy. Take Germany for example: there family businesses contribute to 49% of GDP – this figure in the UK is around 31% at the moment.”
“If you look at the number of family firms which make it past second generation of ownership, current figures put it as low as one in five. We need that figure to improve, and succession planning is certainly a tool which will allow firms to go further, longer and be more successful.”
In the UK it is estimated that there are just over 1,000 family firms with more than 250 employees, most are sold long before they get anything close to that size of operation, often because there is not the experience within the family to take the business forward.
Tim Isherwood from Steuer Gregsson said: “From our experience we know that one of the main concerns for family run businesses is about the ability to pass it on to the next generation. But in the same breath many owners of such firms will often admit to doing nothing about it, either because they don’t know how to approach the issue, or they simply haven’t thought about it.”
“It is a huge issue though, and one firms ideally have to get right the first time. Regardless of their size, family businesses need to be planning their management succession from the day they begin trading”
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