Founded in 1913, Woodlands Home & Garden Group is a manufacturer of timber garden buildings and a processor of machined timber, and employs over 160 staff working across three sites in Leeds and Bradford.
With a strong desire to continue its own growth journey and having seen large scale consolidation across the industry, the business has opted to make the move into employee ownership with the formation of a new employee ownership trust (EOT).
The deal is structured to maintain the longterm stability of the business, with current chief executive Ross Moran and managing director Ged Lees both continuing in their roles, and the existing senior leadership team all remaining in place to achieve the ambitious growth plans of the business.
“There has been a huge amount of interest in this sector over the last two years, and as one of the established market leaders, Woodlands has received a number of offers of investment or in some cases offers to take a controlling interest in the business,” said Mr Moran.
“Whilst this is extremely flattering, it comes at a time when the company is still part way through its brand journey, and we are acutely aware of how important it is for such an historic business to be very selective with regard to strategic partnerships. Instead, we have used this period to assess all of the growth options available to the business and we felt that the EOT model was perfect for us.
“As the proud custodian of this great family business, it seems completely fitting to set up this structure whereby the future of the business rests with the loyal staff who have been the key to our success,” said Mr Moran. “This is a long-term deal designed to provide stability and a defined succession framework, but effectively on a day-to-day basis it will be business as usual, with the same management team continuing the drive towards our existing ambitious vision.”
The company operates through four key brands: Woodlands Garden Spaces, Woodlands Timber, Woodlands DIY Superstore and TigerSheds.com.
Woodlands Garden Spaces focuses on manufacturing premium quality garden buildings and providing its trade partners – independent and specialist retailers – with high-quality garden spaces. Woodlands Timber is a supplier of machined timber, including decking, cladding, framework and mouldings to many garden building manufacturers and timber merchants.
Woodlands DIY Superstore offers customers “everything they need for any home and garden project, all from trusted brands,” including fencing and decking products, garden furniture, sheds (including the company’s TigerFlex models) and log cabins.
Meanwhile, TigerSheds.com is the company’s direct-to-retail, garden building brand. Encompassing a full range of garden buildings, from small storage sheds to summerhouses, playhouses, greenhouses, pet shelters and “extra-large” log cabin homes, the company markets these products as being “built from slow-grown, thick-cut, sustainably sourced timber, finished with our luxury TigerFelt and a protective TigerSkin”.
Despite a challenging year for the garden building sector in 2022, with the market normalising following a Covid boom, the strength of the Tiger brand, boosted by primetime television advertising, propelled website sales to show growth of more than 15% year-on-year.
“Having achieved one of our primary goals last year in taking the Tiger brand on to national television and firmly establishing our brand name, this deal is a key strategic step for us, in what we expect to be another exciting year for the business,” said Ged Lees, Woodlands managing director.
“Whilst the general economic climate could be seen as presenting some challenges right now, we see this as a time of opportunity,” he continued. “We are looking at the EOT as an important phase in our next stage of growth, and we are actively looking at acquisition opportunities and are in live discussions about strategic partnerships across our supply chain and beyond.
“The deal also provides a fantastic and well-deserved chance for the existing staff and leadership team to continue their progression to become a part of the ownership structure of the business.”
