Why Our 100% Employee-Owned Company Designs & Builds Better
By Erika Deshon
Before I started working for A M King, I had never given any thought to what an employee-owned company was. Sure, if someone asked me to explain it, my reply would have been “It’s a company that the employees own,” but it never occurred to me what that could actually mean for the employees, the business, and their clients.
When I joined this company, I was impressed by the beautiful and complex facilities that our teams design and build. They are tangible evidence of our success. I’ve come to understand that intangible drivers, such as creative vision, technical skills and management expertise fuel that success, and strong partnerships with our clients make it last. If you look deeper and explore how we consistently achieve excellence, you’ll see that the heart of our company is employees who think and act like owners — because they are.
What is an Employee-Owned Company?
So, what exactly do I mean when I say that A M King is an employee-owned company? There are several types of employee-owned companies, and how they are managed and governed can vary. The most common structure for employee ownership in the U.S. is the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), and A M King follows this model.
An ESOP is a type of retirement plan, somewhat like a 401(k). ESOPs invest in company stock and hold assets in a trust for employees.
Other forms of employee ownership include equity compensation plans, worker cooperatives, and employee ownership trusts. Some employee-owned companies have only partial employee ownership, but when employees own 100 percent, they hold all the shares — effectively owning the entire company. Our employees accrue shares in our plan over time and are then paid out at the end of their employment.
Employee-owned companies operate in a diverse array of industries, including construction, distribution, engineering, manufacturing, professional services, and finance. Currently, there are 6,257 U.S. companies offering an ESOP and more than 1.5 million workers are in private company ESOPs alone, according to 2024 data from the National Center for Employee Ownership. Only one-third of those are 100 percent employee-owned. In North Carolina, where
A M King’s headquarters are, there are 94 ESOPs.
A M King’s Path to Employee Ownership
In 2019, A M King founder and CEO Brian King began working on the transition of A M King’s ownership to an ESOP. In this article, he explained, “We have a strong team of managers who are searching for more senior leadership roles and showing a greater desire to have an active role in the strategic planning and future development of the business. It was apparent that I would need to release the reins of management, although gradually and continually, to the next generation of leadership.”
After a significant amount of research and consultation with experts, King converted ownership of A M King to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, commonly known as an ESOP.
On Dec. 31, 2020, it became official — A M King became a 100 percent employee-owned company. King delivered this message to our staff: “I believe our future as an employee-owned company is bright. My hope is that you will also view our ownership transition as a significant personal and professional opportunity, and that you will endeavor to make this company, your company, the best it can be.”
I read a recent Harvard Business Review article about the benefits of employee ownership: “Businesses with 30% or more employee ownership are more productive, grow faster, and are less likely to go out of business than their counterparts.” Another significant benefit is better employee retention. In fact, according to a Rutgers University study, ESOPs retain jobs at a 4 to 1 rate compared to their non-employee-owned counterparts.
We Are All Employee Owners
In May, I attended The ESOP Association’s (TEA) National Conference in Washington, DC. The presenters shared startling statistics that point to a sea change in employee financial health and attitudes after joining an ESOP. In fact, TEA reported that employee-owners are more likely than the average American worker to feel prepared for retirement (81 percent vs. 50 percent, respectively). It’s true that employee owners will enjoy larger retirement plan balances as a direct result of the accumulation and growth of their stock shares as the value of the company increases.
I’ve also noticed that my fellow employee owners at A M King have a special sense of pride in their work and take ownership of their projects and tasks. We practice self-accountability, which results in a higher level of individual and collective performance.
At a 100 percent employee-owned company, employees have a real investment in the company’s success and feel more inclined to function in a way that drives the company forward. I believe that ESOPs help make each employee an entrepreneur; they are working for the long-term future success of their team. This, of course, is highly beneficial to the company’s clientele.
Our Entrepreneurial Culture Benefits Clients
A M King’s leadership has worked hard to build a strong ownership culture that not only increases each employee’s retirement wealth and improves the business’s performance, but also benefits our customers.
Due to our long employee tenure, our clients typically work with the same people throughout the duration of their projects. Our project engineers, assistant project managers, project managers and design staff continue to grow and become more knowledgeable about our clients’ specific needs and requirements.
Our team works together to build connections with our clients and that builds trust and strong, lasting partnerships.
“This highly collaborative culture at A M King sparks the innovative solutions we have brought to our food processing and manufacturing clients,” explained Dan Crist in his recent blog about A M King’s 20th Anniversary. “The way that our teams work so well together isn’t by chance. It’s the nature of our Design-Build process, carried out in a working environment devoid of silos. Our in-house design and construction teams work together, fostering an atmosphere of trust, transparency and cooperation.”
Crist concluded by saying, “The ultimate vote of confidence in our teams came from Brian King when he transferred ownership of A M King to an ESOP, giving every employee ownership in the organization we’ve worked so hard to build. While A M King was a great company under Brian’s ownership, the transition to a 100 percent ESOP has further improved the services we offer our clients, increased the productivity and efficiency of our work, and will maximize our potential to continue to achieve even greater accomplishments for our future.”
Conclusion
At our most recent staff meeting in June, Brian King said he has seen the shift to “an owner’s mindset” among our employees and said that each and every one of us is indeed an “Employee Owner.” Our shared mission remains the same since A M King was founded: to “be the best in our industry by delivering fully integrated design, construction and facility maintenance services with passion, integrity and personal responsibility in partnership with our clients, team members and communities.”
What this means to me is that each employee at A M King plays a critical role in the function of the company and each role is equally important to the future success of the company. Being part of an employee-owned company has made that commitment even stronger.
