West Yorkshire-based Sutcliffe Play has become the UK's first employee owned playground equipment manufacturer.

In a buyout supported by Baxi Partnership, Co-operative & Community Finance, Barclays and The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, company chair Robin Sutcliffe has handed over ownership of the company to its employees. Sutcliffe, who said that employee ownership had been a dream of his for almost 50 years, added: "In my experience employee ownership motivates and provides a level of commitment that is unusual in privately owned companies.

"This development will give Sutcliffe Play an intellectual advantage over its competitors and a unique strength within the marketplace." Viv Jebson, managing director of Sutcliffe Play, said: "We are looking forward to continued growth in the knowledge that the future of the company is in our own hands."