Leeds Tech Consultancy Fluid Completes Management Buyout

Fluid makes three senior leaders shareholders as founder Gareth Murphy steps up to chief executive, in a buyout aimed at keeping the business in its people’s hands

Fluid, a Leeds tech consultancy, has completed a management buyout that hands a stake in the business to three of its senior leaders and elevates founder Gareth Murphy to chief executive. The deal makes IT transformation director Jason Lock, technology director Michael McCarthy and commercial director Alex Pidgeon shareholders, with Gareth Murphy keeping a 33 per cent holding and a further pool of shares set aside for future managers.

Why This Matters For Leeds

Leeds is increasingly a place where tech founders build, scale and reward their teams. Employee and management ownership keeps decision-making, and profit, in the citt. Firms that vet technology for investors are quiet enablers of the region’s deal flow, and their health is a proxy for how much buying and selling is happening.

Inside the Leeds Tech Consultancy’s Buyout

Fluid was founded in 2013, and this is its second ownership change in three years: in 2023 Gareth Murphy bought out earlier shareholders and split the business from its enterprise resource planning arm. This latest move broadens ownership rather than concentrating it. Alex Pidgeon, who joined in 2022 as a business development manager, is among those stepping up to director and shareholder. The 19-strong team of full-time and associate staff works on enterprise-level IT projects and business-critical systems for clients including Bettys and Taylors Group, Key Capital Partners and Outdo. The buyout value was not disclosed. The deal was advised by law firm Needle and by Whitehall Corporate Finance. Day-to-day operations, the firm says, will not change.

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“When I bought out our previous shareholders to pursue the Fluid we have today, it was always my goal to put Fluid back in the hands of its people.”

— Gareth Murphy, CEO and founder, Fluid

A Player in Leeds’ Deal Economy

The firm sits closer to the centre of Leeds’ investment scene than its size suggests. Alongside SME work, the Leeds tech consultancy advises private equity investors on the technology behind the companies they buy, running due-diligence reviews that can make or break a deal. Its client and testimonial list features private equity names such as Palatine, NVM Private Equity and Key Capital Partners, plus Leeds hospitality group ARC Inspirations. That places Fluid in the same private-capital ecosystem that has been thickening across the city, from BGF’s growing portfolio to the steady flow of buyouts advised out of Leeds. As more of that activity is tech-enabled, demand for firms that can assess digital risk tends to rise with it.