The N.U.M. lodge committee men decided
to put the case forward to the workforce
that an employee buyout of the colliery
should be made in the forthcoming sell-off
of the British Coal Industry.

At a general meeting of the workforce it
was decided to accept this idea and a
working party of six was appointed. This
became officially known as T.E.B.O. (Tower
Employee BuyOut).

 
Many fund raising activities were organised to raise capital to pay for preparing the bid.

Workmen who wished to be included in the buy-out were asked to pay 2000 each into a "deposit" fund in order to prove to the government that this was a serious attempt to buy back the colliery.

     As well as the problems of fund raising, the
     T.E.B.O team had to provide a viable business
     plan and this needed engineers, managers, buyers
     for Tower Coal and banks prepared to assist in
     financing the deal.

     The local council provided office space in the
     town of Aberdare and soon letters of support and
     donations started to flow in.
     By the time the bid had to be submitted the
     team had raised 1.93 million - each miner
     investing 8000 - and secured a 1.5 million
     loan from Barclays Bank.

At the Tory Party conference in October 1994,
it was announced that T.E.B.O. were the preferred
bidders for Tower Colliery - outbidding other
companies in the race to buy the Tower.

Eight months after the bitter taste of defeat the
workforce returned to the colliery on 3rd January
1995 accompanied by their families, brass band and
with the union banner in the lead.

Of the 320 men employed at Tower before the
closure,200 became shareholders in the new
company, others took the opportunity to retire
or seek new jobs elsewhere.