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IFB launches programme to support mid-sized family business

By Giulia Cambieri

Maintaining an entrepreneurial approach, integrating non-family members and planning succession are the main challenges UK mid-sized family businesses face, but a new initiative promises to unlock growth at these firms and boost the country’s economic development.

That’s what lobby group the Institute for Family Business told CampdenFB.

“Working with non-family members, professionalising the board and solving conflicts within the family are the main barriers to mid-sized family businesses’ growth,” a spokesman for the institute said.

“Understanding these issues that are unique to family businesses will help mid-sized businesses tackle them better and will lead to better performances,” he added.

In collaboration with the UK government, the IFB has launched a series of seminars and online guides to support the growth of British mid-sized family firms, which include businesses with revenues between £25 million (€30 million) and £500 million, by improving their understanding of topics such as succession and entrepreneurship.

The initiative is part of a number of measures announced this week by UK business minister Mark Prisk to support the country’s 10,000 mid-sized business, of which almost half are family-owned.

“Family firms form a significant part of the UK’s mid-sized businesses and the IFB wants to see them continue to play a powerful role in growth,” IFB director Grant Gordon said in a statement adding that the newly launched initiative “will break down barriers to growth”.

The first meeting, which will focus on succession, will be held in Lancaster at the end of February and will be jointly organised by the IFB and the UK’s biggest employers’ organisation, the Confederation of British Industry.

There are almost three million family businesses in the UK, according to the IFB. Combined, they employ 9.2 million people and account for two-thirds of the country’s private sector enterprises. 

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