Handford Aitkenhead & Walker has its eye on the future. Not content with a takeover by a consolidator, the firm has set in motion a management buyout.

Next-generation planners Laura Ripley and Alasdair Walker are to buy the shares from incumbent owners Jim Aitkenhead and Alyson Hunter at the end of a seven-year period. This has involved Ripley and Walker forgoing their profit shares.

Sustainability is at the heart of the firm’s vision: it aims to be net zero by 2023. To achieve this, it has installed electric car chargers on site and is offsetting carbon emissions for clients travelling to its meetings.

The Leicester-based firm, which holds corporate chartered status, has grown quickly; assets under advice by the end of 2022 are projected to be £150m, up from £135m in 2021.

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