A Sense of Adventure
What began as a drawing and a vision of a future involving “trees, tepees, tree houses, and bonfires” evolved into an adventure company welcoming more than a million visitors a year.
Offering activities such as zip wires, tree-to-tree crossings, bouncy nets, and on the ground adventures, the business has grown to thirty-five sites in the UK and a further sixteen in the US.
But, in the two decades since founding Go Ape, husband and wife team Rebecca and Tristram Mayhew have always wondered how they would safeguard the company’s unique culture and values.
Going EO
Rebecca and Tristram transferred 90% of Go Ape shares into an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) in October 2021, giving its 1,000 strong workforce an equal stake in the success and ownership of the business.
Thinking of Go Ape like family, the duo wanted to retain 10% of the business to still be involved – without being in control – to have an ongoing legacy with the business they built.
“It’s been something that has been all the way along the journey, we’ve always thought ‘what’s it going to look like into the future?’” said Rebecca.
“We’ve got three children and we’ve always been clear that they would have their own destiny and their own paths, and they’ve always thought that as well. We’ve built a business where the culture is very unique, and the values are something that every one of our team lives every day and we want to see that go into the future.”
Exploring how succession might play out, the founders looked at the possibility of selling to a private investor in 2019 to see if it was the right way to go. But it became clear this would have risked the business being sold off.
“We felt they wouldn’t be the right custodians for our family at Go Ape,” said Tristram. “They’d said they love our business and the values, but actually they admitted to us straight away that they would have just kept six of our best courses then chopped it up and sold it on.”
EO Approach
Go Ape is all about “creating adventures and encouraging everyone to live life more adventurously.” The desire to preserve this culture led Rebecca and Tristram down the path to employee ownership (EO).
As part of the move, an employee council was established to channel all the ideas, innovation, and passion for the business from across its UK sites.
Bringing the team along for the journey left employees in no doubt that the founders had trust in them to be custodians of the business for future generations.
“If you put trust in them and believe in them, they’re going to step up, so we feel very confident we’ve got the right people,” said Rebecca.
Reflections
Checking in after eighteen months into employee ownership, Go Ape co-owner and Managing Director, Nick Hall, says: “Over 18 months ago we started our new adventure as an Employee-Owned company and a lot has happened in that time!"
He noted that the Employee Council has become the eyes and ears of co-owners raising their concerns, ideas, and bringing real challenge to the Management Team and Trustees. These two employee Trustees make sure co-owners remain at the core of the company’s decision making.
During this period, Go Ape has:
- Paid profit distributions to co-owners
- Launched its own co-owner communication platform to better connect its teams
- Established an environmental working group
It’s currently also hard at work to establish the Go Ape Foundation to support projects that align with its core values.
Most importantly, they have celebrated its success with BananaFest, its very own co-owner festival of music, fun, food, and drink.