Greater Manchester-based recruitment and payroll services group Kinetic announced that it is now an employee-owned company.

Managing director Neil Smith said the move would preserve the culture and independence of the group while ensuring staff share in its success. Smith was the majority shareholder with a 75% stake. The family of the late founder Terry Maunder held the remaining 25%.

The shares have been transferred to an employee ownership trust but said it is business as usual, with the current directors and managers remaining in charge of the day-to-day running of the group.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The Kinetic group of companies comprises staffing divisions Kinetic Recruitment Services and Kinetic Nursing, along with Pay Partners, which provides outsourced payroll services to small and medium-sized businesses.

Kinetic Recruitment Services, a manufacturing and engineering recruitment specialist with over 3,000 clients, is the largest division. The group employs 62 staff and generated revenues of £22 million in its latest financial year.

“I wanted to preserve the culture and independence of the business and for a number of years I had been looking for the right structure that would safeguard these key principles without selling it to a third party,” Smith said. “The employee ownership trust model is an ideal fit for us.”