Over the years, the founders had built a successful operation delivering ultra-prime projects while also developing new opportunities around the core brand. Several companies had been created along the way - some to support new activities and others linked to overseas expansion.
Alongside the core trading business, a new international company had recently been established in UAE to support projects in the region. At the same time, the founders were investing in the development of a new product range that would extend the brand into online retail and product design.
Commercially, the business was thriving.
Structurally, however, things had become more complicated.
The companies all sat under the founders’ personal ownership. That meant every movement of profits, assets or dividends between them triggered tax consequences. It also meant cash and value tended to remain trapped inside individual trading companies.
For a business entering a new phase of growth, that creates friction.
It limits flexibility, makes international profit flows inefficient and can leave valuable assets sitting inside operational companies where they carry unnecessary risk.
The strategic review
P10 carried out a full review of the existing structure, looking not just at the companies themselves but also at the founders’ longer-term ambitions for the business.
Those ambitions included:
Continuing international expansion
Developing the new lifestyle product range
Potentially launching further companies in new territories
Creating future exit flexibility should they ever decide to sell part of the business
The existing structure had served the business well during its early growth. But it wasn’t designed for the next stage.
Building the right structure for growth
The solution was a full group restructure.
Seven companies, previously owned personally by the founders, were brought together under a newly created holding company.
Instead of each company operating independently under personal ownership, they now sit beneath a single group structure.
On the surface, the change is relatively simple. In practice, it transforms how the business can operate.
What the restructure enables
The new structure allows profits generated by the trading companies to be transferred to the holding company as tax-free dividends.
This creates a central pool of funds that can then be used to support other parts of the business without triggering personal tax charges.
For a growing business, that flexibility is significant.
Cash can be moved between companies through inter-company loans, allowing the founders to fund new ventures, support expansion or invest in new opportunities without extracting funds personally.
The structure also allows assets and intellectual property to move around the group tax efficiently.
This is particularly relevant for the company’s new lifestyle product range. Designs, stock and intellectual property can now be placed in the most appropriate company within the group without triggering unnecessary tax charges.
Supporting international operations
The restructure also addressed a key challenge around overseas profits.
The UAE company is expected to generate profits as international activity increases. Under the previous structure, bringing those profits back to the UK would likely have created a significant tax charge.
With the new group structure in place, profits can move through the group far more efficiently, allowing the business to benefit from international growth without unnecessary tax friction.
Creating future exit options
Perhaps just as importantly, the restructure creates long-term flexibility for the founders.
If the owners ever decide to sell part of the business - whether that’s the product range, an international operation or one of the trading companies - the group structure allows those companies to potentially be sold independently.
Under the right conditions, those sales may qualify for Substantial Shareholding Exemption, meaning the disposal of a subsidiary could take place without a corporation tax charge.
For founders building valuable brands or product lines, that can significantly change the options available to them.
The real value of the work
The immediate tax savings from this type of work are often difficult to measure on day one.
The real value lies in what it enables.
The business now has:
A structure that supports international expansion
Efficient movement of profits and assets within the group
Reduced risk exposure within trading companies
A framework that supports new ventures and product development
Flexibility for future exits or investment opportunities
For growing businesses, these structural decisions often sit quietly in the background.
But they can become some of the most valuable strategic work an advisory team delivers.
Because when the structure is right, the business has the freedom to grow, invest and evolve without tax or complexity getting in the way.
