April 7th, 2019 Berkeley, Ill.-based KI Industries Inc., a supplier of decorative plastic and die-cast components, ranked No. 2 on the 2019 Best Places to Work list. It also happens to have an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (or ‘ESOP”). Getting employees more engaged after adopting an ESOP means different things for different companies. For KI,…
Attending the 2019 Employee Ownership Conference? If so, there are 3 easy ways to connect: #1: On Tuesday April 9th, hear Chuck Bachman speak about The 2018 Main Street Employee Ownership Act and its Impact on SBA Lending. Chuck is our Senior Corporate Counsel. As a CPA and attorney, he specializes in the design and…
In 2018, Menke & Associates, Inc. assisted a unique, deeply relationship-driven service business with its successful transition to 100% employee ownership. The company’s two shareholders had built a $40 million-dollar entity with a worldwide, disparate supplier network, multiple Fortune 100 clients, and global operations in a heavily-regulated industry and were ready to continue their ownership…
April 2nd, 2019 Evapco, an employee owned company (ESOP) and an international manufacturer of cooling and refrigeration products, celebrated 40 years in southwest Madera, California. Evapco Madera was the second manufacturing plant that Evapco created having being founded in Baltimore in 1976. Read More at: http://www.maderatribune.com/single-post/2019/03/27/Evapco-West-marks-40-years-in-business Employee Stock Ownership Plans or “ESOPs” are a viable tool…
March 29th, 2019 For Crafts Technology of Elk Grove Village, Illinois, building an innovative culture required asking for intellect, sharing ownership, and rewarding good ideas. The company, one of the oldest continually operating tool companies in the U.S., has expertise in cutting, tooling, and shaping ultra-hard materials. Their precision tools are used in the manufacture of…
March 28th, 2019 Vermont-based Chelsea Green Publishing is now fully employee-owned, marking the completion of an eight-year transition initiated by founders Margo and Ian Baldwin. Through an employee stock-ownership plan (ESOP), the company purchased ownership shares from the Baldwins on behalf of the 25 employees of the owners of the independent publishing house. Read More:…
March 27th, 2019 Democratic Colorado Governor Jared Polis’ administration is putting together an Employee Ownership Center within the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade The center will work with law firms and accountants to simplify the process and reduce costs associated with converting to an ESOP or Employee Stock Ownership model. Read more at: https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2019/03/26/colorado-says-it-wants-to-be-the-delaware-of-employee-ownership/ Menke & Associates,…
By Victor Alam, Esq We recently came across a company whose ESOP distribution procedures prohibited participants from electing a stock distribution. Those plan provisions were in the original plan document when the ESOP plan was first adopted years ago. When the company converted from an S corporation to a C corporation a few years later,…
By Trevor Gilmore Zweig Group’s recently released 2019 Valuation Survey of AEC Firms highlights an important trend in employee ownership performance. Zweig focused on nationwide AEC firms – i.e. architecture, engineering & construction firms, of all sizes. From a valuation perspective, firms with employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) performed better than non-ESOP firms in five…
Growing numbers of U.S. companies are giving workers financial stakes via employee stock ownership plans Aritcle by Judy Stringer. Reposted from the original article at Crain’s Cleveland Business There are a few lingering questions when it comes to Great Lakes Brewing Co.’s newly announced employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP. How many shares employees will receive,…
Reposted from the original article at Business of Home HEATH CERAMICS, MADE ITS EMPLOYEES INTO OWNERS. SHOULD YOU? JAN 9, 2019 FRED NICOLAUS In 2015, Robin Petravic and Catherine Bailey, co-owners of iconic California ceramics brand Heath, were looking ahead to the 15th anniversary of their tenure. Over the last decade, the couple had transformed the company from a struggling…
By John D. Menke, Esq. Now that the dust has settled following the passage last December of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (“TCJA”), it is clear that the new tax act confers substantial tax benefits on businesses and their owners and also makes ESOPs even more attractive, both for existing ESOP companies…
SAN FRANCISCO – June 1, 2017 – PRLog — Menke & Associates, Inc., the nation’s largest and oldest employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) advisory firm, announced today that they are becoming a Founding Member of Certified Employee-Owned® (Certified EO), a new certification program for employee-owned companies. “Menke & Associates is majority owned by its employees.…
The Brix Group, a leader in onboard entertainment and communication systems for the commercial vehicle industry, has become 100% employee owned. With the help of The Menke Group, The Brix Group has extended ownership to their employees by way of an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. In addition to helping create financial security for employees, the…
SolarCraft, a well established Novato solar panel design and installation firm, has become 100% employee owned. With the help of The Menke Group, the principal owners of SolarCraft have extended ownership to their employees by way of an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. In addition to helping create financial security for employees, the plan is designed…
A study released today by Alex Brill, former advisor to the Simpson-Bowles bipartisan deficit reduction commission and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, finds that private employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) organized as S corporations increased employment over the last decade more quickly than the overall private sector. Among surveyed “S-ESOP” companies, the Brill…
The Los Angeles Times featured an article about Howard’s Appliance & Flat Screen Superstores, which has been 100% employee-owned since 2000. The company, which started as a radio repair shop in San Gabriel, sold nearly half of the company over to the employees when the government approved employee stock ownership plans in 1976. Employees acquired 100%…
Mills James, a comprehensive creative media production company based out of Columbus, Ohio has made an animated film explaining how their Employee Stock Ownership Plan (and how ESOPs in general) work. Mills James employs about 150 employees and specializes in the following areas: Teleproduction, Broadcast Production, Business Video, Meetings & Events, Web Interactive and Original…
Local business owners say they’re spreading the wealth in Great Falls by offering long term employees stock ownership plans or ESOP’s. It’s a structure that is set up and its federally recognized, so the employees are then part of a trust that then owns either a 100% of the company or some portion of the…
Read the original posting at the Cal-Tex Website Cal-Tex is 97% employee-owned through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).As the 2011 Grand Prize Winner of theNational Center for Employee Ownership’s Innovations in Ownership Award and the 2011 ESOP Association’s Best Communications Award (Small Company), Cal-Tex is committed to providing a company structure that will benefit the employee and…
Click here to read the original article at bizjournals.com For business owners who want to cash out but still oversee the direction of the company and take care of their workers, an employee stock ownership plan might be the best bet. That was the message from panelists Tuesday morning at the monthly meeting of ACG…
National Van Lines Inc. said it has changed the company’s structure, selling itself to an employee stock ownership plan entity. The third-generation, family-run business said it has been working on transitioning to an ESOP-owned S Corp. structure since July 2010 effort to “find an ownership and liquidity succession plan that did not disrupt the culture…
WASHINGTON, Sept. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Results from the Employee Ownership Foundation’s 20th Annual Economic Performance Survey of ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) companies that are members of The ESOP Association show that ESOPs, while not immune to economic developments beyond their control, have seen an upturn over the past year. The survey shows ESOP…
NOVEMBER 1, 2004 The following article was originally published in Bloomberg Businessweek and written by Amey Stone Employee ownership can be a powerful tool Last November the 100 employees of Superior Plumbing & Heating, a mechanical contractor in Anchorage, Alaska, gathered on the snow-covered ground to celebrate their new status as full owners of the…
For additional information, contact: Angie Lamielle, Senior Marketing Associate 330-684-4002 alamielle@willburt.com For Immediate Release: Monday, June 06, 2011 The Will-Burt Company is celebrating its 25th year as an Employee Owned Company. Will-Burt employees have been participating in the Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP) since its inception on December 31, 1985. Will-Burt will be holding a…
Here is a video posted by one of The Menke Group’s Clients: WinSystems, an embedded PC designer and manufacturer, provides a high level of quality and customer service through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). This leads to employees holding a direct stake in maintaining a high level of customer service. Here is the full…
By Nancy Mann Jackson, contributing writer June 17, 2010: 4:45 AM ET (CNNMoney.com) — On his 81st birthday, entrepreneur Bob Moore signed the papers to hand nearly a third of his company over to his 200 employees. But it’s a gift Moore and his three partners hope will pay off for them as well: By…
“A new dawn greets ESOP companies!” “The Holy Grail of business opportunities beckons: ESOP companies can now operate tax free!” Not since 1984, when the §1042 tax-free rollover was enacted, has the ESOP community bubbled with such enthusiasm. Under the provisions of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, (“EGTRRA”), the ESOP’s…
Fall 2010 Written by Loren Rogers In a project funded by the Employee Ownership Foundation, the NCEO did an extensive analysis of ESOP companies using data from the US Department of Labor. Unlike prior research, the study carefully compiled data from multiple plans within a single company and used multiple years of data for each…
