Sign Design Inc. (Brockton, MA) is now 100 percent employee-owned.
The company announced the move after its recent sale to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan & Trust (ESOP), a benefit plan which provides company stock to employees as part of their retirement benefits.
President Whitney Ferrigno said transitioning to an ESOP allows Sign Design to reward its employees, many of whom have been with the company for more than 10 years. “We want our employees to act and think like owners and directly benefit from our continued success,” she said.
Ron Ferrigno, vice president and general manager, said becoming an employee-owned company will help workers assume the responsibility that comes with ownership and “improve our margins dramatically.”
“Most significantly, selling our business out from under the employees that have helped us get where we are just didn’t seem like the right thing to do,” he added. “While Whitney and I have been considering an exit strategy, we are not ready to retire. The ESOP allows us to continue to run the business and participate in the ESOP.”
There are more than 7,000 ESOPs in the U.S. with about 14 million participants.
For more information about the company, visit signdesign.com.