LUC has reported a strong set of results for the year ended 31 December 2020.

The emergence of COVID-19 in March 2020 necessitated a fundamental review of LUC’s short-term strategy; a new break-even budget, cutting investment, and putting recruitment on hold. However, the Company still turned over £11.6m in 2020 (2019: £12.0m), generating a profit pool of £0.4m. 50% of this profit pool will be distributed to staff on a percentage of salary formula, as per the arrangements of the Company’s Employee Ownership Trust (EOT).

By the end of 2020, LUC employed 190 people (2019: 184) and had celebrated its first year as an EOT. The Company monitors its gender balance and pay gap to benchmark progress and support transparency in its employment practices. LUC has developed its policies and practices with a view to balanced gender representation at all levels over time. At the end of 2020 it comprised 106 women, 83 men and one non-binary employee; and the Company’s subsequent measurement of the median pay gap had reduced by a further 3% to 9.5% (12.7% in 2019).

Jon Grantham, Managing Director of LUC, said “It is testament to all our people that we outperformed the short-term strategy despite the exceptional circumstances.”

“Our prior investment in technology and existing culture of flexible working put the company in a strong position to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic, however everyone adjusted admirably to the move to homeworking. Our newly-established Senior Leadership Team and EOT Board of Trustees enabled rapid and agile decision making throughout the pandemic.”

“Our business is built on our people and we continue to attract and retain high-quality individuals, many of whom are drawn by our flexible attitude to working arrangements, company values and stimulating projects. Employee satisfaction, which we survey every year, remains very high and we continue to invest in our people’s wellbeing and ongoing development.”

“LUC seeks to generate profits, not maximise them, and to share those profits equally among employees. In practice this means we do not pursue profit at all costs, preferring instead to balance this against our wider social, environmental and economic priorities. It remains our policy to redistribute 50% of our profits as bonuses to employees, retaining the balance for investment in the business.”

“Our breadth and depth of client relationships equipped us well during the period, several LUC projects won industry awards and client feedback continued to be very positive.”