Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs)

Thoits Insurance Service

Thoits Insurance started in 1891 as one of the many Thoits family enterprises. It served the personal insurance needs of local residents from the Palo Alto - Stanford University area as well as the commercial insurance needs of their small businesses. In 1975, with revenues of $225,000, the five employees bought out the Thoits family interests and began the journey into employee ownership. Today the company has 69 employee owners who service over $150 million in premium from offices in nearby Mountain View and Santa Cruz. Read more about Thoits Insurance Service...

Swinerton Builders

San Francisco-based Swinerton Builders provides a full range of pre-construction and construction services to clients, including commercial construction, tenant improvements, renovation, design-build services and value management. Founded in 1888, Swinerton Builders is now 100 percent employee-owned, with 1,100 employees working in 14 offices across California, Hawaii, Texas, Colorado, Washington and Oregon.  Among its many construction projects was the renovation of the California Theater, home of the San Jose Opera. Read more about Swinerton Builders...

Rosendin Electric Motor Works

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...

Recology

Recology provides garbage, recycling, bulky goods, yard waste, and residential street sweeping service to approximately 150,000 homes in the City of San Jose. These services are brought to San Jose as part of the City's Recycle Plus Clean 'n' Green San Jose program. Founded in 1921, Recology (formerly Norcal Waste Systems), headquartered in San Francisco, is parent to subsidiary companies providing all facets of solid waste management. Read more about Recology...

McCarthy Building Companies, Inc.

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.

Graybar

Specializing in supply chain management services and the distribution of high-quality components, equipment, and materials for a number of industries, Graybar is an employee-owned Fortune 500 company. With $6.4 billion in revenue in 2016, Graybar, headquartered in St. Louis, has thousands of employees at more than 290 distribution centers throughout the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico.

Miller Paint

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...

Kerotest Manufacturing Corporation

Established in 1909, Kerotest Manufacturing Corporation produces industrial valves from plastic and steel for the natural gas and petroleum industries.  In 1983, when the large conglomerate that owned the business indicated it wanted to divest, the employees came together and bought the company. In 2007, Kerotest had 110 employee-owners with estimated sales of $20 million.

HDH Group

HDH Group is a brokerage that provides insurance and consulting services to meet businesses’ risk managementhuman 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.

Urban Engineers, Inc.

Urban Engineers is a multidisciplinary planning, design, environmental, and construction support services consulting firm headquartered in Philadelphia.  Founded in 1960 with just 7 employees, Urban Engineers now has 450 employees working across 15 offices.  In 2014, the firm became 100 percent employee-owned.  Committed to the community, Urban Engineers supports a broad range of nonprofits through sponsorships and employee volunteerism.

Pennock

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.

Zachary's Chicago Pizza

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...

Schreiber Foods

Founded in 1945, Schreiber has grown to become the world's largest privately held cheese company, with 4,200 employees and over $2 billion in annual sales. Since 1999, it has been 100% employee-owned through an ESOP. Read more about Schreiber Foods...

Publix

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...

March Westin

Founded in 1984, March Westin functions as a full-service engineering, general contracting, and design-build firm which handles projects ranging from a few thousand dollars to more than $45 million. Conversion to an ESOP began in 1993. Currently, 81 employees own 36% of the company, with the company having set a goal of majority employee ownership by the end of the decade. Read more about March Westin...

King Arthur Flour

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...

W. L. Gore

Founded in 1958, the company, maker of GoreTex products, has expanded to have over 6,000 employees. The company's web site focuses on its egalitarian employment culture, not its ownership structure. But W.L. Gore employees own approximately 90% of the company through their ESOP. Read more about W. L. Gore...

Elkhorn Construction

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...

The Davey Tree Expert Company

Founded as a family-owned business in 1880, the company has expanded to offer tree and lawn care services in 40 states and 4 Canadian provinces. A 100% employee-owned company since 1979, the company currently has approximately 5,000 employee-owners nationwide. Read more about The Davey Tree Expert Company...