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Employees take helm in non-destructive succession

L-R: Dave Lavender, Jill Thompson, Ian Griffin, Gary Elliott, Tim Armitt

Global provider of non-destructive testing services and training Lavender International NDT is entering a new era in the hands of its employees.

Dave Lavender, the last of the original founders of the business still working, is retiring after over 40 years. As part of a succession plan, Lavender International became an employee-owned business in 2015, making all 39 employees at Lavender co-owners in the business, in a move designed to safeguard the future of the business and its employees.

Lavender provides training courses in a wide range of NDT techniques including ultrasound testing, radiography, and eddy current testing. Its consultancy arm advises companies on NDT procedures and practice and provides Level 3 supervision of NDT for firms without the capability to do this themselves. Its headquarters are in Sheffield and it has offices in Houston, Texas and in Greece, South Africa and Canada.

Mr Lavender’s NDT career began in 1976 with the foundation of JD Partnership, which he and his parents Jack and Joyce Lavender set up to provide NDT services. Jack, who died in 2003, became one of the first of the American Society for Nondestrutive testing NDT Level 3s in 1977.

Dave Lavender said: “We recognised that employee ownership was the only way that the people we built this company with would be looked after properly when we, as a family, had finally stepped down. We desperately didn’t want the business to be sold to an unknown party, so I’m incredibly happy that I’m leaving the business in the most capable hands: its employees. I have no doubt that the team will remain faithful to the core values Lavender was founded on: quality, flexibility and trust.”

Lavender International managing director Tim Armitt said: “Dave’s departure from the business is the end of an incredible era, but also the dawn of exciting new beginnings. All of the team here are Lavender through and through and will work together to build on his legacy.”