Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs)

Founded in 1919, Rosendin Electric has grown to have over 2,500 employees with annual sales in excess of $750 million. In 2000, the Rosendin Electric employee's completed their buyout of the Rosendin family to become the nation's largest employee-owned electrical contractor. Read more about Rosendin Electric Motor Works...

Founded in 1864 and headquartered in St. Louis, McCarthy Building Companies is one of the nation's oldest privately owned construction firms.  Having completed $7.6 billion in green construction projects, the 100 percent employee-owned firm is considered one of the top 20 green builders in the nation.  Today, the company has more than $3.5 billion in annual revenues, 1,700 full-time employees, and 16 offices located across the U.S.

Founded in 1890, Portland-based Miller Paint now operates throughout Oregon and Washington. In 1999, employees purchased the company through an employee stock ownership plan. Now, there is 100% employee ownership by the firm's 250-plus employees. Read more about Miller Paint...

HDH Group is a brokerage that provides insurance and consulting services to meet businesses’ risk management, human capital management, and alternative risk needs. Since its establishment in 1982, the company has grown from 6 employees to nearly 100 and now stands as Pennsylvania's largest employee-owned broker with over $300 million under management.

Originally founded in 1882 as a private wholesaler in the floral industry, Pennock became an employee-owned company after the death of owner Samuel S. Pennock one hundred years later. Now as an ESOP, the business has grown to have over 350 employee-owners with business operations in 8 cities.

The 115-employee Zachary's Chicago Pizza restaurant provides an example of how the ESOP form can allow family business owners to transfer ownership over time to their employees as they retire. In Zachary's case, conversion to ESOP ownership began in 2003 and has now accomplished 100% employee ownership. In a fall 2004 interview with the Berkeley-based Daily Californian newspaper, the restaurant’s co-founder, Zach Zachowski, explained the rationale for creating the ESOP: “If we sold the business to a corporation, the culture will change and so will the food and the staff.” Read more about Zachary's Chicago Pizza...

Publix, a Lakeland, Florida-based supermarket with branches throughout the southeastern United States, has made its employees part owners of the company since the 1930s. Today, it is the largest employee-owned supermarket chain in the country, with over 128,000 employees and annual sales of $16.5 billion. Read more about Publix...

Started in Boston in 1790 and now based in Norwich, Vermont, America's oldest flour company has grown from a family-owned, mail-order business with five employees in 1990 to a 100 percent employee-owned (ESOP) business with over 180 employees and $45 million in annual sales. In January 2008, King Arthur Flour became a B-corporation (indicating a commitment to public benefit as well as profit). It was also among the 25 companies listed in WorldBlu's 2007 list of most democratic workplaces. Read more about King Arthur Flour...

Founded in 1984, Elkhorn Construction is a 100% employee-owned General Contractor specializing in the construction and maintenance of oil, natural gas, petrochemical and pipeline facilities as well as fossil fuel power/steam plants and mining operations, with a core workforce of more than 100 employees. Elkhorn also provides construction services for public works projects in the civil, mechanical, and electrical fields. Each of the three employees who retired in 2003 had accumulated personal ESOP account shares worth greater than $200,000. Read more about Elkhorn Construction...