Like many north-east oil and gas service businesses, Accord Energy Solutions is young but enjoying rapid growth.
Unlike many others in the sector, however, Accord’s employees all have a vested interest in the firm’s expansion, because they all have a stake in it.
Accord, which advises operators on the correct measurement and allocation of produced oil and gas, employs 26 people, but director Alan Spence said he wanted to nearly double that figure by 2015.
The firm was set up in August 2010 and turned over £1million in its first year, but after hitting £3.2million last year it expects to achieve its 2015 target of £5million a year early.
Mr Spence – who co-founded Accord with James Arthur and Phil Stockton, all formerly at hydrocarbon accounting specialist Intertek Smith Rea Energy – said the employee-owned model was key to the company’s success. He added: “In our previous company, we had built a fairly open management system and got our colleagues involved in all aspects of the business.
“We found that worked extremely well so, when we decided to set up on our own, we wanted to take it a step further and become employee-owned.”
Mr Spence, an employee-ownership ambassador for Co-operative Development Scotland, said he believed the company structure encouraged engagement and commitment from the workforce, but accepted it was not common in the north-east. He added: “The usual entrepreneurial model here is for two or three guys to start a company and grow it to a level where they can sell it and it can expand further, but we are actually looking to avoid that and make sure there is a long-term future for our employees and fellow owners.”
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