The National Center for Employee Ownership recently released its 100 Largest Employee-owned Companies in the U.S., and distributors fared well this year with six companies making the list, including Graybar Electric (13) and Border States Electric (84). Both of those companies were highlighted in our 2010 Market Leaders ?? Electrical Distributors list, as well.
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Dealers Electric ?? No. 20 on MDM’s list ?? and Independent Electric Supply ?? No. 22 ?? are also employee-owned. And we’ve previously featured Industrial Market Leader Hisco (No. 31) in an article on ESOPs.
The NCEO website lists several studies demonstrating how becoming an ESOP helps your performance as a company. And while the companies that made MDM’s Market Leaders lists suffered severe revenue declines in the past year, maybe the ESOP culture helped them avoid worse.
Because being an ESOP is about creating an \”ownership culture,\” says Larry Goode, former CEO and owner of seal distributor R.T. Dygert International, and now president of Goode Advisors Inc. (Read Creating an Ownership Culture in the Jan. 10, 2010, issue of MDM.) Creating an ownership culture can result in longer employee tenure, better employee referrals and stronger financial results, he says.