EOT Advisors Client - ShopBot Tools is First Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) in North Carolina

Key Takeaways

• ShopBot Tools chose an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) to reinforce employee engagement and preserve its long-term mission.

• Founder Ted Hall believes employee ownership strengthens employees, customers, communities, and shareholders alike.

• ShopBot's EOT transition built on years of profit sharing, open-book management, and employee participation.

• Hall views EOTs as a simpler, more flexible, and less expensive alternative to ESOPs.

• Employees actively participate in forecasting, financial discussions, and strategic decision-making.

• The EOT supports ShopBot's commitment to community-based manufacturing and long-term independence.

• EOT Advisors helped ShopBot design and implement an ownership structure aligned with the company's values and goals.

ShopBot Tools’ Employee Ownership Trust: Building a Company That Serves Employees, Customers, and Communities

"One of my missions in life is feeling like if we can bring some manufacturing back to our communities, we'll have brought a lot of value back to our communities."

For Ted Hall, founder of ShopBot Tools, employee ownership was never just about ownership. It was about strengthening communities, supporting small manufacturers, and creating a company designed to thrive for generations.

That vision ultimately led ShopBot Tools to become employee-owned through an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT). Rather than pursuing a traditional sale, Hall saw employee ownership as a way to reinforce the company's culture of engagement while protecting the employees, customers, and communities that helped make ShopBot successful.

A Mission Beyond Manufacturing

Since its founding, ShopBot Tools has focused on helping entrepreneurs, makers, and small manufacturers succeed. The company designs and manufactures CNC tools that empower small businesses to compete, grow, and create value within their local communities.

"We make tools that empower small businesses and small manufacturing operations," Hall explained.

That commitment to community-based manufacturing has shaped ShopBot's culture from the beginning. Hall believes that strong local businesses contribute directly to stronger communities, and that ownership structures should support those long-term relationships rather than undermine them.

Why ShopBot Chose an Employee Ownership Trust

For Hall, employee ownership was a natural extension of values the company had embraced for years.

"This emphasis on getting employees, getting everyone involved in the business, engaging them and thinking about how we develop, how we grow, how we help our customers develop and grow has been pretty important to us."

Employee ownership offered a way to formalize and strengthen that engagement.

According to Hall, an Employee Ownership Trust allows ownership to be held collectively through a trust that owns the company on behalf of employees. Rather than individual employees holding shares directly, the trust owns the company in perpetuity for the benefit of current and future employees.

"We see that employee ownership can actually play a big role in helping reinforce that kind of engagement."

For ShopBot, the transition was not about changing the company's culture. It was about protecting and deepening it.

Building on a Culture of Participation

Long before becoming employee-owned, ShopBot had already adopted many of the practices commonly associated with high-engagement workplaces.

The company had operated with profit sharing and open-book management for years. Employees regularly reviewed financial performance and participated in discussions about the company's future.

In recent years, ShopBot adopted the Great Game of Business framework, which further increased employee involvement in forecasting and financial management.

"We talk about ShopBot's P&L and how we're doing every week," Hall said. "Employees actually contribute to mapping the data out and discussing it."

That level of transparency has created a culture where employees understand how the business works and how their decisions impact company performance.

As Operations Manager Adam Horton explained:

"Every week as a company we forecast to identify our resources, identify problems before they become a problem and to reach our goal."

Why Ted Hall Prefers EOTs to ESOPs

One of the most striking parts of Hall's interview was his direct comparison between Employee Ownership Trusts and Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs).

Hall believes EOTs are particularly well suited for small and mid-sized businesses because they are easier to administer, less expensive to maintain, and provide greater flexibility in structuring ownership arrangements.

"It's easy to make the case for an employee ownership trust for small businesses, simply because it's so much less administratively involved and so much less expensive and offers so much freedom in how you lay out the nature of the deal and the final arrangement."

In fact, Hall's endorsement went even further:

"Frankly, I see no reason, everybody should be doing employee ownership trusts rather than ESOPs."

While acknowledging that others may disagree, Hall sees EOTs as a modern ownership model that aligns with the realities of today's workforce and business environment.

Serving More Than Just Employees

Hall emphasized that employee ownership benefits more than the workforce alone.

"There are four groups really that an Employee Ownership Trust serves."

Those groups include employees, customers, communities, and shareholders.

Employees benefit through participation in the company's success. Customers benefit from continuity and long-term support. Communities benefit from stable local employers. Shareholders gain a succession solution that can preserve the company's mission and values.

Hall believes one of the greatest strengths of the EOT structure is its ability to balance the interests of all four groups simultaneously.

How EOT Advisors Helped Make the Transition Possible

As ShopBot evaluated employee ownership, the company worked with EOT Advisors to design and implement an Employee Ownership Trust structure aligned with its culture and long-term objectives.

The transition required creating a governance and ownership framework capable of preserving ShopBot's employee-centered culture while ensuring the company remained positioned for long-term success. EOT Advisors helped guide the process and translate the principles of employee ownership into a practical ownership structure.

The resulting EOT allows ShopBot to remain independent while continuing to support employees, customers, shareholders, and the community it serves.

Looking Toward the Future

For ShopBot's employees, the EOT reinforces something that already existed: a sense of ownership and commitment to the company's success.

"We all feel invested in the business," said Jen Nix. "We all have a stake in the business and becoming an employee ownership trust actually reinforces that more than anything else."

Hall shares that confidence.

"Everybody's kind of grown up with us. They're part of the approach. They're part of the mindset that we have here."

For Hall, employee ownership is ultimately about trust—trust in employees, trust in the company's culture, and trust that the mission will continue long after any individual owner steps away.

"It's very easy for me to be very confident that things will go well, and that ShopBot will be around for a long time helping people make cool stuff."

About EOT Advisors

EOT Advisors is the first U.S. financial services firm dedicated to Employee Ownership Trusts. Working with business owners in all 50 states, the firm guides each sale from start to finish: advisory, valuation, tax planning, financing, legal coordination, and trust administration.

To learn whether an EOT is the right path for your company, schedule a free consultation or call (800) 289-9865.

EOT Advisors Client - Bioworks Transitions to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT)

Key Takeaways

• BioWorks chose an Employee Ownership Trust to preserve its culture, independence, and long-term mission.

• CEO Bill Foster rejected a traditional sale because he wanted to protect employees and the company's unique culture.

• Foster initially explored an ESOP but concluded that an EOT better aligned with his goal of perpetual employee ownership.

• BioWorks added an employee-elected board member and expanded employee participation in governance.

• The company redesigned its profit-sharing program to distribute profits equally among employees.

• BioWorks combined its EOT with a Stock Appreciation Rights (SARs) program to help employees build long-term wealth.

• EOT Advisors helped BioWorks design and implement an ownership structure tailored to the company's values and succession goals.

BioWorks’ Employee Ownership Trust: How Bill Foster Preserved Culture, Independence, and Employee Ownership

"There's got to be a better way to run a company."

That realization ultimately led BioWorks CEO Bill Foster to pursue an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) rather than a traditional sale or even an ESOP.

For Foster, the decision was deeply personal. After helping lead a management buyout of BioWorks in 2010, he spent years fielding acquisition offers from private equity firms and strategic buyers. While those offers may have created opportunities for shareholders, Foster worried about what would happen to the employees who had dedicated their careers to building the company.

"I just kept envisioning the employees," Foster explained. "What am I going to tell them? They have committed their career to BioWorks."

Rather than pursuing a conventional exit, Foster began searching for a succession strategy that would protect the company's culture while rewarding the people who helped create its success.

From Management Buyout to Employee Ownership

BioWorks was founded in 1993 to commercialize biological crop protection technologies developed through Cornell University research. The company develops biologically based alternatives to traditional chemical pesticides and serves growers throughout the horticulture and specialty agriculture industries.

Foster joined the company in 1998 and later helped lead a management buyout that transferred ownership from a large shareholder group to a small group of managers.

"We approached the board in 2007 and said, 'We're interested in buying the company.'"

After a lengthy 28-month negotiation process, Foster and four partners acquired the company in 2010 through a highly leveraged management buyout. Over the following years, they paid down the acquisition debt and eventually consolidated ownership among just two owners.

While the transaction gave management control of the company, it also created a new challenge: determining how ownership would eventually transition again.

Why a Traditional Sale Wasn't the Right Fit

Like many successful business owners, Foster received frequent acquisition inquiries.

"I still get calls if not every week, probably every other week from some private equity company."

But unlike many founders and owners, he never viewed those offers as particularly attractive.

The issue wasn't valuation. It was culture.

BioWorks had spent decades building a workplace centered around employee development, environmental stewardship, and long-term relationships. Foster feared that a traditional acquisition would eventually dismantle those qualities.

"The culture at BioWorks is the most important thing to me."

Potential buyers often promised autonomy.

"They'd say, 'For the first five years, we're going to treat you as a standalone company.'"

Foster was skeptical.

"The last thing I wanted to do was destroy that culture."

Why Bill Foster Chose an EOT Instead of an ESOP

Before discovering Employee Ownership Trusts, Foster initially focused on ESOPs.

"I went to an ESOP conference in Arizona probably seven or eight years ago thinking ESOP, ESOP, ESOP."

What changed his thinking was learning that even an ESOP-owned company could ultimately be sold.

After reading about the sale of New Belgium Brewing, Foster began asking questions.

"I remember that just created a pit in my stomach."

If a future acquisition offer became large enough, an ESOP trustee could ultimately be obligated to support a sale.

For Foster, that outcome conflicted with his vision for BioWorks.

"To me, it's the people that helped build the company that should be rewarded with ownership."

When BioWorks' attorney introduced him to the Employee Ownership Trust concept, he immediately saw the difference.

"It's like, that's it. That's exactly what we want to do."

Building Employee Ownership Beyond the Trust

The EOT transaction became a platform for broader changes throughout the company.

One of the first governance changes was the creation of an employee-elected board seat.

"We've actually added a third board member. He's elected by the employees."

The company also redesigned its profit-sharing program.

Historically, bonuses were tied to compensation levels. Employees with higher salaries received larger profit-sharing allocations.

BioWorks replaced that model with equal profit sharing.

"If there are 10 people in the company and we made a hundred bucks, everybody gets ten dollars."

For Foster, this reflected a simple principle.

"It's the team that's creating the value of the company."

Combining Employee Ownership with Wealth Creation

One common criticism of EOTs is that employees do not receive individual share accounts like they would in an ESOP.

BioWorks addressed this by pairing its EOT with a Stock Appreciation Rights (SARs) program.

Every employee receives SARs grants, and the company is expanding the program to create greater long-term wealth opportunities.

Foster hopes that long-term employees will eventually accumulate between $100,000 and $250,000 in appreciation value over the course of their careers.

"We want to be able to create this opportunity that when someone leaves BioWorks after working here for 15 or 20 years, they're looking at meaningful appreciation in value."

The result is a hybrid model that combines the stability of an EOT with direct wealth-building opportunities for employees.

How EOT Advisors Helped Structure the Transition

BioWorks became one of the earliest U.S. companies to adopt an Employee Ownership Trust.

Working with EOT Advisors, Foster designed a structure that prioritized employee ownership, cultural preservation, and long-term independence.

The flexibility of the EOT model allowed BioWorks to customize governance, profit sharing, employee representation, and wealth-building programs in ways that would have been difficult under more rigid ownership structures.

For Foster, the trust wasn't simply a succession plan. It was a way to permanently align ownership with the people who help create the company's success.

A Better Way Forward

Looking back, Foster believes the EOT provided an answer to a question he had been asking for years.

How can a company reward employees, preserve culture, remain independent, and continue pursuing its mission after the current owners step away?

For BioWorks, employee ownership became that answer.

As Foster put it:

"There's got to be a better way. There's just got to be a better way to run a company."

About EOT Advisors

EOT Advisors is the first U.S. financial services firm dedicated to Employee Ownership Trusts. Working with business owners in all 50 states, the firm guides each sale from start to finish: advisory, valuation, tax planning, financing, legal coordination, and trust administration.

To learn whether an EOT is the right path for your company, schedule a free consultation or call (800) 289-9865.

EOT Advisors Client - ACP International is First Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) in Texas

Key Takeaways

• ACP International became the first Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) in the State of Texas in 2022.

• Founder Joe Nussbaum chose an EOT over private equity, a strategic sale, a family handoff, and an ESOP because it was the only structure that could keep ACP debt-free, headquartered in Arlington, and protected from a future resale.

• EOT Advisors, founded by Chris Michael, is the first U.S. firm dedicated to Employee Ownership Trusts and guided ACP through valuation, deal structuring, tax planning, financing, documentation, fiduciary setup, and employee communications.

• An Employee Ownership Trust differs from an ESOP in three core ways: no ERISA oversight, no repurchase obligation, and structural permanence that prevents future boards from selling the company.

• Joe Nussbaum is staying on as President through 2028 and has become a public advocate for employee ownership.

When Joe Nussbaum woke up one morning in 2021 and decided it was finally time to think seriously about succession, he already knew what he didn't want.

He had watched too many fellow founders sell their companies to private equity and live to regret it. The deals worked on paper. The wires cleared. Then came the cuts: layoffs at the plant, headquarters quietly relocated, broken promises to long-tenured employees, vendors, and customers left to absorb the disruption.

As Joe would later put it in his own letter to ACP's people, the seller "ended up with a fat wallet but a broken heart."

After 36 years of building ACP International from a used 1972 single-wide trailer house in Arlington, Texas, into a 72,000-square-foot manufacturing operation serving the fiber optic, telecom, pipeline, utility, and signage industries across the country, Joe wasn't going to let that be ACP's ending.

So, he found a different path. In 2022, with EOT Advisors as his transition partner, ACP International became 100% employee-owned through an Employee Ownership Trust and the first EOT in the State of Texas.

This is the story of how that happened.

The Start: A Single-Wide Trailer House in Arlington

ACP began in April 1986 as American Communication Products. Joe and his wife Becky Nussbaum bought a used 1972 single-wide trailer ("before trailers improved to mobile homes, and before mobile homes improved to manufactured housing," as Joe likes to put it), set it up in Arlington, and turned the dining room into ACP's first headquarters. They worked side by side, mainly, Joe says, because there wasn't room to work back to back.

There were two products and two people. The first year barely broke even. But ACP made it through, and that was enough.

Slow Growth, Long Tenures

The company didn't grow fast, and that turned out to be the secret.

Year after year, Joe and Becky reinvested profits, stayed debt-free, hired carefully, and added product lines. By 1988, ACP had its first leased plant and its first employees. Two of those original hires, Judy Schuchman and Ginger Biagiotti, are still named publicly on the company's About page decades later, a small detail that says a lot about how ACP thinks about its people.

By 1992, the company owned its building. In 2007, it moved into the 72,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Arlington that it occupies today.

Ask anyone at ACP how long they've been there, and the answer usually comes back in decades, not years. The company brags about it openly on its About page, and the brag holds up. Plenty of the people Joe and Becky hired in the late '80s and early '90s spent their whole working lives at ACP before retiring, and the ones who came after them tend to stick too.

A Family of Brands, From 1863 Onward

Along the way, Joe quietly built a family of brands:

• VIP (acquired 2002): A Houston-based tag and label manufacturer, ACP's first acquisition and a way to extend the company's reach into industries beyond telecom.

• Porter Graphics (acquired 2003): Parts of the New Braunfels printing operation, folded into ACP to expand its product range.

• Concrete Graphics (developed 2006): Not an acquisition but a homegrown product line, a patented pavement-marking system that has since become one of ACP's signature offerings.

• SA-SO (acquired 2009): A school and small-town safety supplier with roots stretching back to 1948, originally a mail-order house selling traffic signs, ambulance stretchers, kerosene road flares, and the occasional dog-catcher net to towns all over America.

• Stonehouse Signs (acquired 2020): The company's lineage runs back to 1863, when William Stonehouse opened a sign shop in Chicago and taught his son to paint gold-leaf lettering on storefront windows. Stonehouse went on to help found the National Safety Council in 1912 and to shape the ANSI Z35.1 industrial accident-prevention sign standards now embedded in OSHA.

• Capital StreetScapes (acquired 2022): An Austin-based maker of decorative signposts and frame systems for upscale developments, historic districts, and campuses, brought into the family just months before ACP's own ownership transition.

Today, the ACP family of brands employs roughly 60 people serving utility, telecom, pipeline, government, and commercial customers across the country. ACP is, by any reasonable measure, a quiet American success story.

Which is exactly what made the question of what comes next so important to get right.

The Dilemma: How Do You Sell the Company Without Selling Out the People Who Built It?

For Joe, getting it right started with knowing what ACP actually was. He has a simple way of describing it: the triangle. Customers on one side. Vendors on another. Employees on the third. Each side equal and each side carrying its share of the weight. When ACP is working, all three sides hold.

The trouble with most succession options is that they wreck the triangle. Joe spent the better part of a year working through the choices on the table, and one by one, he ruled them out.

Private Equity

Joe had watched friends sell their companies to private equity. The deal closes, the wires clear, and within a few years, the company is loaded with debt, the workforce trimmed, the headquarters relocated, and the vendor relationships strained. As Joe later put it, the seller ends up with a fat wallet and a broken heart. ACP had stayed debt-free for its entire 36-year existence. Joe wasn't going to undo that on the way out.

A Strategic Acquisition

The most likely buyers were larger competitors, and Joe knew what happens when bigger companies absorb smaller ones: someone else's hometown gets the jobs. ACP would lose Arlington, the long-tenured employees would lose ACP, and the triangle would collapse all at once.

A Family Handoff

A family transition can work beautifully when the timing and the people line up. It didn't fit Joe's situation. He had other plans for his next chapter, and ACP needed a succession plan that would outlast any single individual.

Three options had been ruled out. There was one more on his list.

Then He Weighed an ESOP

Of the options on Joe's list, the ESOP came closest to what he was looking for. Employee Stock Ownership Plans have been the main American path to employee ownership since 1956, and the basic outcome was right: a sale to ACP's own employees.

But the closer Joe looked, the more the structure pushed back. ESOPs are governed by ERISA, which means annual valuations, DOL oversight, and ongoing administrative costs. They carry a repurchase obligation that grows over time as employees retire. And nothing in the structure prevents a future board from selling the company anyway.

Joe wanted employee ownership, not a federal compliance program. He wanted permanence, not a holding pattern. He wanted to do this once and have it stick.

He just didn't know what to call it yet.

Enter EOT Advisors

That's where EOT Advisors came in.

Chris Michael had been working on this exact problem for a decade. He'd recognized the Employee Ownership Trust as an established succession option in the United Kingdom, recognized that American founders had no equivalent, and, roughly ten years ago, founded EOT Advisors to bring the model across the Atlantic. The firm became the first in the U.S. to specialize in the structure and is still the most experienced.

By the time Joe came calling, EOT Advisors had already guided a number of American founders through the same transition, and Corey Rosen of the National Center for Employee Ownership had described Chris as "the leading expert on Employee Ownership Trusts in the US."

Joe had spent a year describing the kind of company he wanted to leave behind. EOT Advisors had spent a decade building the structure for exactly that.

The Solution: A Trust Built for Permanence

Once Chris walked Joe through how an Employee Ownership Trust would work for ACP, the fit was obvious.

Joe would sell his shares to a perpetual trust with the purpose of rewarding the people who worked at the company. From that point forward, the trust would hold ACP. Operations wouldn't change. Profits would flow back to the people creating them. The trust itself would be built to outlast everyone in the room.

None of the friction Joe had been worried about came with it. There was no ERISA layer to manage because an EOT isn't a retirement plan. No repurchase obligation would build up on the balance sheet, because the trust holds the shares permanently rather than vesting them out to individual employees. Nor would there be a future board that could quietly flip the company to private equity or a strategic buyer, because permanence would be baked into the structure itself.

This was exactly what Joe had been hunting for. The sale would go to the people who built ACP. The company would stay debt-free, stay in Arlington, and keep the triangle standing for the long run.

How EOT Advisors Guided the Transition

EOT transactions are tricky. There's a valuation to nail down, a deal to structure for tax efficiency, documentation to put in order, and seller financing to work out so that the founder gets paid without crushing the company, and a fiduciary framework to put in place so the trust runs cleanly for decades.

Every piece feeds the next, and a misstep on any one of them can compromise everything downstream. It's the kind of work most founders are not equipped to manage on top of running their company.

But Joe didn't have to. Chris and the EOT Advisors team handled it end-to-end and were direct with him about what mattered, what didn't, and what to expect at each stage. Joe stayed focused on ACP. EOT Advisors moved the deal.

When the time came to tell ACP's employees that the company was changing hands, EOT Advisors helped Joe think through how to say it: what employee ownership would mean for their jobs, their paychecks, and the company they'd helped build.

By the time the deal closed in 2022, ACP became the first Employee Ownership Trust in the State of Texas.

What Comes Next

A few years on, the company looks the way Joe hoped it would. ACP is still in Arlington. The brands are intact. Operations are rolling along the way they always have. The long-tenured employees who helped Joe and Becky build the place are now its owners, and the people coming up behind them will be too.

Joe is staying on as President through 2028 to see the transition fully through. But he's spending his free time on a second mission: telling every other founder he can find about employee ownership. He published an op-ed in the Fort Worth Business Press in November 2025, making the case directly to Texas's roughly 206,500 retiring business owners: "My employees are the reason we've gotten as big as we have today. Employee Ownership was my way of saying thank you."

ACP isn't alone in making this choice. Across the country, a growing number of founders have walked the same road with EOT Advisors at their side: manufacturers, professional services firms, family businesses with long employee tenures and longer histories. These are people who looked at the options on the table and decided the team that built the company should be the team that inherits it.

ACP started in a used trailer house in Arlington with two products and two people, and thirty-six years of slow, careful building turned it into a company that sixty-some employees now own outright.

The triangle still stands, and Joe got to write the ending himself.

In Joe's Own Words

"Selling a company you've spent 36 years building is a hard thing to get right. Chris Michael and the team at EOT Advisors made it the right thing — for me, for my employees, and for the customers and vendors who built this business alongside us. They've been doing Employee Ownership Trusts in this country longer than anyone, and it shows in every part of the process. ACP wouldn't be the first EOT in Texas without them, and these days I tell every founder I meet to call EOT Advisors before they call anyone else."

— Joe Nussbaum, Founder & President, ACP International

About EOT Advisors

EOT Advisors is the first U.S. financial services firm dedicated to Employee Ownership Trusts. Working with business owners in all 50 states, the firm guides each sale from start to finish: advisory, valuation, tax planning, financing, legal coordination, and trust administration.

To learn whether an EOT is the right path for your company, schedule a free consultation or call (800) 289-9865.

EOT Advisors Client - Bicycle Technologies International is First Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) in New Mexico

Key Takeaways

• BTI chose an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) after employees expressed a desire for greater career growth and earning potential.

• Founder Preston Martin wanted a succession plan that rewarded employees while preserving BTI's culture and independence.

• After evaluating ESOPs, worker cooperatives, and other options, BTI concluded that the EOT best aligned with its goals.

• Employee ownership has increased engagement, with employees taking a greater interest in profitability, expenses, and business performance.

• BTI uses a profit-sharing model that allows employees to benefit from the company's success while continuing to reinvest in future growth.

• The company paired its EOT with a charitable initiative, Bicycle Harvest, extending the benefits of ownership into the broader community.

• EOT Advisors helped BTI design and implement one of the largest Employee Ownership Trusts in the United States.

Bicycle Technologies International’s Employee Ownership Trust: Aligning Succession Planning with Employee Growth

"How do I combine a succession plan with these goals, the employees' goals?"

That question became the catalyst for one of the largest Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) transitions in the United States.

For Preston Martin, founder of Bicycle Technologies International (BTI), succession planning had been on the to-do list for years. Like many business owners, he knew he needed a long-term transition strategy but had always found more urgent priorities competing for attention.

Then 2020 changed everything.

A company-wide employee survey revealed something that fundamentally altered how Martin thought about BTI's future: employees wanted clearer career paths and greater earning potential. Rather than simply preparing the business for an eventual sale, Martin began searching for a succession strategy that could directly address those employee aspirations.

The result was BTI's transition to employee ownership through an Employee Ownership Trust.

Building BTI from a Garage Startup

BTI began in 1993 in Ashland, Oregon, as a small bicycle suspension repair business operating out of Martin's garage.

"We fixed up my garage with its dirt floor and basically renovated the whole shack into a space where we could do our repairs."

What started as a small operation quickly evolved into a national bicycle parts distribution business.

In 1996, Martin and his partner relocated the company to Santa Fe, New Mexico, seeking a more central location, a longer riding season, and better opportunities for growth. The move helped BTI expand beyond the West Coast and establish relationships with bicycle retailers across the country.

Over the following decades, the company experienced continuous growth.

"It's been perpetual growth since we started."

In 2017, BTI opened a second warehouse in Sparks, Nevada, allowing the company to provide one-day shipping throughout much of the western United States and further strengthen its distribution capabilities.

From Succession Planning to Employee Ownership

Like many founders, Martin initially approached succession planning as a business necessity.

"Every business owner with a mature business is told, 'You should be thinking about your succession plan.'"

For years, that planning remained a future project.

Then came the employee survey.

The results highlighted employees' interest in greater advancement opportunities and stronger financial participation in the company's success.

"It revealed their strong desire for a more defined career path and greater earning potential."

Rather than simply selling the company to the highest bidder, Martin began exploring ways to combine succession planning with employee ownership.

"That's where employee ownership became a priority."

Evaluating ESOPs, Worker Cooperatives, and EOTs

BTI examined multiple employee ownership structures before deciding on an EOT.

Martin initially assumed that an ESOP would likely be the best solution.

"The ESOP was probably the best known, and I was fairly certain that that would be the direction we might go."

However, after interviewing ESOP professionals and learning more about the structure, he became concerned about implementation costs, administrative complexity, and ongoing maintenance requirements.

"It became clear that the formula wasn't right for our company."

BTI also explored worker cooperatives.

While Martin appreciated the cooperative model, he felt it emphasized decentralized decision-making more heavily than BTI desired.

"We wanted a strong management culture that still encouraged individual achievement amongst the employee-owners."

The Employee Ownership Trust ultimately struck the balance BTI was seeking.

While preserving the company's existing leadership structure, the EOT provided a framework for employee ownership, profit sharing, and long-term stewardship.

Why BTI Preferred Profit Sharing

One aspect of the EOT that particularly appealed to Martin was its focus on ongoing participation rather than deferred rewards.

Under a traditional ESOP, employees often receive the largest financial benefit when they leave the company and cash out their accounts.

Martin questioned whether that structure always aligned incentives effectively.

"We didn't want to basically incentivize an employee to leave."

Instead, BTI wanted employees to benefit while actively contributing to the company's success.

Through the EOT, employees participate in annual profit sharing while helping build the company's future. This approach reinforces the idea that ownership benefits are tied to long-term engagement and ongoing contribution.

Increased Employee Engagement

BTI announced the EOT transition at the beginning of 2021.

"We surprised the heck out of everybody."

Employees immediately began asking questions about how the trust worked, how profit sharing would function, and what employee ownership meant for the future of the company.

Since the transition, Martin has observed a noticeable increase in employee engagement.

"They're asking the right questions about our expenses, about how to increase sales, improve margin."

Employees had always cared about the business, but ownership has created a stronger connection between day-to-day decisions and company performance.

"They generally care about the bottom line in a way that they did before, but now they're very tuned in."

Employee Ownership and Community Impact

One of the most distinctive aspects of BTI's EOT structure is its connection to community giving.

During the transition process, BTI established a nonprofit organization called Bicycle Harvest.

The company's annual profit-sharing formula allocates resources to three purposes:

• Reinvestment in the business

• Employee profit sharing

• Community impact through Bicycle Harvest

The nonprofit supports initiatives such as Free Bikes for Kids, which repaired and donated more than 1,000 bicycles during its first year, as well as long-running bicycle-based food donation programs.

For Martin, employee ownership extends beyond employees alone.

"We're trying to make sure that this company is going to be around for the long term, creating jobs and wealth for our community."

How EOT Advisors Helped Structure the Transition

As BTI evaluated succession alternatives, Martin discovered EOT Advisors through articles written by Chris Michael on Employee Ownership Trusts.

"You helped me understand the simplicity and the value of the employee ownership trust."

Working with EOT Advisors, BTI designed and implemented one of the largest EOT transactions completed in the United States.

The flexibility of the EOT structure allowed the company to preserve its management culture, establish employee ownership, create a profit-sharing framework, and incorporate community-benefit goals into the overall design.

Preserving BTI's Culture for the Long Term

BTI's transition was never simply about ownership.

It was about creating a company that could continue to grow while maintaining the values that had shaped it since its earliest days.

The EOT supports BTI's core value of "Take care of each other" while creating a structure that benefits employees, customers, vendors, and the broader community.

For Martin, employee ownership offered something more than a succession plan.

It offered a way to align the future of the company with the people who help make its success possible every day.

About EOT Advisors

EOT Advisors is the first U.S. financial services firm dedicated to Employee Ownership Trusts. Working with business owners in all 50 states, the firm guides each sale from start to finish: advisory, valuation, tax planning, financing, legal coordination, and trust administration.

To learn whether an EOT is the right path for your company, schedule a free consultation or call (800) 289-9865.

EOT Advisors Client - Optimax Systems Preserves Local Ownership Through Sale to Employee Ownership Trust (EOT)

Key Takeaways

• Optimax chose an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) to ensure the company remains independent for generations.

• Founder Rick Plympton wanted a succession plan that balanced shareholder liquidity, employee wealth sharing, and community impact.

• The company evaluated family succession, management buyouts, ESOPs, and trusts before selecting an EOT.

• Optimax's Perpetual Purpose Trust was designed around three core principles: never sell the company, share profits with employees, and continue investing in growth.

• The company has shared 25% of profits with employees for more than two decades and committed to continuing that practice under employee ownership.

• Optimax believes long-term employee ownership can strengthen communities by preserving jobs, creating careers, and keeping wealth local.

• EOT Advisors helped Optimax design and implement one of the largest Employee Ownership Trust structures in the United States.

Optimax’s Employee Ownership Trust: Building 100 Years of Prosperity Through Employee Ownership

"We looked at a timeframe of 100 years."

When Optimax founder Rick Plympton began evaluating succession options, he wasn't simply looking for a way to retire. He was looking for a way to ensure that the company could continue creating jobs, sharing wealth with employees, and strengthening its community for generations.

That long-term vision ultimately led Optimax to adopt an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT), creating an ownership structure designed not only to benefit employees but also to preserve the company's independence and purpose far into the future.

Building a World-Class Manufacturing Company

Founded in 1991 near Rochester, New York, Optimax manufactures precision optics for research and industry.

The company has supplied optics for every Mars Rover mission and serves customers ranging from advanced manufacturers to NASA. Over three decades, Optimax has grown into a 400-person organization operating more than 120,000 square feet of manufacturing space and generating approximately $50 million in annual revenue.

Through much of its history, the company achieved annual growth rates approaching 20 percent.

Just as importantly, Optimax developed a culture centered on sharing success with employees.

For more than twenty years, the company has distributed 25 percent of annual profits to employees through a profit-sharing program.

"We've closed the books at the end of each month and taken 25 percent of the profit and shared it with our employees."

That philosophy became an important factor in determining the company's future ownership structure.

Defining the Succession Goals

Before evaluating ownership options, Optimax identified the outcomes it wanted any succession plan to achieve.

Plympton and his fellow shareholder wanted:

• A fair payout for exiting owners.

• Continued wealth sharing with employees.

• Long-term growth and workforce development.

• Stronger local communities.

• Permanent independence.

"We really want to make sure that the company never gets sold."

That final objective became particularly important given Rochester's history.

Over the years, many successful local businesses had been acquired by larger corporations, resulting in the loss of jobs and economic activity within the region.

"There’s a lot of great small companies that occasionally get purchased by multinationals and they take the technology they're interested in and then shut down the Rochester division."

Optimax wanted a different future.

Evaluating Family Succession and Management Buyouts

The company considered several traditional succession strategies.

Family succession can be highly successful when capable next-generation leaders are available. However, Plympton recognized that family ownership often becomes increasingly complex over multiple generations.

"Businesses rarely survive beyond a few generations when they choose this option."

Management buyouts were another possibility.

However, Optimax concluded that this approach simply postponed the succession challenge.

A younger management team might be able to purchase the company today, but future generations would likely face the same issue on a much larger scale.

"We might be able to make this happen at the size that we are today, but by the time our young professionals are looking to retire, the business would probably be worth so much that they wouldn't be able to parlay it again."

Why Optimax Looked Beyond the ESOP

Like many employee-owned companies, Optimax spent considerable time evaluating the ESOP model.

Plympton saw many advantages.

Employees would receive ownership interests, and shareholders could benefit from favorable tax treatment.

However, several concerns remained.

The company worried about future repurchase obligations and the possibility that the company could ultimately be sold despite becoming employee-owned.

"We really want to make sure that the company never gets sold."

Plympton also reflected on Rochester's experience with major corporations such as Kodak, Xerox, and Bausch & Lomb.

Many employees at those companies expected ownership and retirement benefits to provide long-term security, only to face significant challenges when the businesses declined.

That history reinforced the importance of creating a sustainable ownership structure focused on long-term resilience.

Discovering the Employee Ownership Trust

The breakthrough came when Plympton learned about Employee Ownership Trusts and the concept of a Perpetual Purpose Trust.

"But then I met Chris Michael."

Through discussions with EOT Advisors, Optimax began exploring how a trust-based ownership structure could address the company's long-term goals.

The concept immediately resonated.

"It really seemed to hit on all the metrics for us."

Rather than creating an ownership structure that could eventually lead to another sale, the trust could be designed around a permanent mission.

Creating a Perpetual Purpose Trust

Working with EOT Advisors, Optimax developed a Perpetual Purpose Trust built around three central principles:

1. Never sell the company.

2. Continue sharing 25 percent of profits with employees.

3. Invest in workforce development, innovation, and long-term growth.

"We sat down and started thinking about what would the tenets of the Perpetual Purpose Trust be."

The resulting structure allows Optimax to operate as a for-profit company while ensuring that ownership remains dedicated to those long-term purposes.

The trust owns the voting shares of the business, while additional incentive programs help encourage leadership development and long-term thinking throughout the organization.

Employee Ownership as Community Wealth Building

Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of Optimax's story is its focus on community impact.

Plympton sees employee ownership not merely as a tool for succession but as a mechanism for strengthening entire regions.

Over the previous twenty years, Optimax generated approximately $300 million in revenue. Roughly half of that revenue was distributed to employees through wages and bonuses.

"About half of each revenue dollar goes to our workforce."

Looking forward, the company expects to generate approximately $2 billion in revenue over the next twenty years.

Plympton views that future payroll and profit sharing as a powerful form of local economic development.

"That's how you strengthen a community."

By preserving local ownership and continuing to create high-quality jobs, Optimax hopes to ensure that wealth remains within the communities that helped build the company.

How EOT Advisors Helped Structure the Transition

As Optimax evaluated ownership alternatives, EOT Advisors helped the company understand how Employee Ownership Trusts and Perpetual Purpose Trusts could support its objectives.

Working together, Optimax designed an ownership structure capable of balancing shareholder liquidity, employee ownership, long-term stewardship, and community impact.

The flexibility of the EOT model allowed the company to customize governance and ownership arrangements around its specific goals while preserving independence for future generations.

A 100-Year Vision

Most succession plans focus on the next owner.

Optimax focused on the next century.

Rather than asking how ownership could be transferred, the company asked how ownership could support employees, innovation, and community prosperity for generations.

"We wanted to look at 100 years of prosperity."

For Optimax, the Employee Ownership Trust became more than a succession solution.

It became a framework for ensuring that the company remains independent, employee-centered, and committed to strengthening its community for decades to come.

About EOT Advisors

EOT Advisors is the first U.S. financial services firm dedicated to Employee Ownership Trusts. Working with business owners in all 50 states, the firm guides each sale from start to finish: advisory, valuation, tax planning, financing, legal coordination, and trust administration.

To learn whether an EOT is the right path for your company, schedule a free consultation or call (800) 289-9865.

EOT Advisors Client - Paras and Associates is First Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) in California

Key Takeaways

• Paras & Associates chose an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) to preserve its social mission while enabling founder retirement.

• Founder Melinda Paras wanted to protect both the company's employees and its commitment to improving healthcare access.

• The company determined that an ESOP would be too complex and costly for a business of its size.

• The EOT allows employees to receive annual profit-sharing distributions rather than waiting until retirement to realize ownership benefits.

• Paras & Associates maintained its existing board-led management structure after the transition.

• The transaction allowed the founders to receive fair value for the company while avoiding a sale to competitors.

• EOT Advisors helped design, implement, and continue overseeing the Employee Ownership Trust structure.

Paras & Associates’ Employee Ownership Trust: Preserving Mission, Employees, and Social Impact

"We wanted to capture some of the value we had created in the company, but we also wanted to retain the social good that the company had facilitated."

That challenge sits at the heart of many business succession decisions.

For Melinda Paras, founder of Paras & Associates, retirement planning was not simply a financial exercise. The company had spent years building a technology platform that improved access to healthcare interpretation services for hospitals across the United States. Any ownership transition would need to protect not only the business itself, but also the mission that inspired its creation.

Rather than selling the company to a competitor or pursuing a traditional exit, Paras ultimately chose an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT), allowing employees to become the beneficiaries of the company's future success while preserving the organization's social purpose.

Building a Business Around Social Good

Paras & Associates was founded in 2006 as a technology company focused on improving access to healthcare interpretation services.

The company's platform enables hospitals and healthcare systems to connect patients with interpreters through a centralized video interpretation network. Hospitals can use their own interpreters more efficiently and even share interpreter resources across institutions.

When the company was founded, profit was not the primary objective.

"We were really trying to do social good and improve access to quality healthcare interpreting."

That mission shaped the company's culture and growth. Although Paras & Associates became a successful nationwide business generating approximately $6–7 million in annual gross profit, its purpose remained centered on expanding access to healthcare services for patients with language barriers.

The Succession Challenge

As Melinda Paras and the company's CFO approached retirement, they began evaluating ownership transition options.

Like many business owners, they initially considered selling the company to competitors in the industry.

However, the more they thought about that possibility, the less attractive it became.

"We thought probably there would be some interest in purchasing PAA. But we thought about what would happen if we did that."

Paras worried that a traditional acquisition would focus primarily on acquiring customers rather than preserving employees or mission.

"The competitors would be mainly seeking our client base, would probably let go of our employees, and really change the vision and the value of the company."

For a company founded around social impact, that outcome was difficult to accept.

Why an ESOP Wasn't the Right Fit

While exploring alternatives, Paras learned about Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) through the National Center for Employee Ownership and attended one of its national conferences.

She credits the organization with providing valuable education and resources regarding employee ownership.

However, after learning more about ESOPs, she concluded they were not the best fit for Paras & Associates.

"Our company was just too small."

With approximately ten employees, the company faced challenges related to ESOP administration, regulatory requirements, and ongoing oversight obligations.

"There were just a lot of management processes that were required in an ESOP."

The complexity and expense associated with operating an ESOP ultimately led Paras to continue searching for alternatives.

Discovering the Employee Ownership Trust

Ironically, the solution appeared at the very conference where Paras had been researching ESOPs.

Although she left before the final presentation, her CFO stayed and attended a session by Chris Michael on Employee Ownership Trusts.

Following up on that presentation changed the course of the company's succession planning.

"We found that an Employee Ownership Trust was much more suitable for what kind of company we were."

The EOT structure allowed the company to remain employee-owned without the administrative complexity of an ESOP. It also provided flexibility in governance and profit-sharing design.

Most importantly, it preserved the mission and values that had guided the company since its founding.

Immediate Benefits for Employees

One aspect of the EOT particularly appealed to Paras.

Employees would begin benefiting immediately.

"In an ESOP, really the employees don't see the value of their shares until they retire."

Under the Employee Ownership Trust model, employees participate in annual profit-sharing distributions.

"In the EOT model, the employees profit share at the end of every fiscal year."

For Paras, this approach felt more tangible and rewarding. Employees could directly experience the benefits of ownership while actively contributing to the company's success.

The company elected to distribute profits proportionally based on salary levels, recognizing differing responsibilities while maintaining broad participation among employees.

Maintaining Leadership While Protecting the Mission

A common misconception about employee ownership is that it automatically transforms a company into a worker cooperative.

Paras & Associates took a different approach.

The company retained its existing board-led governance structure, which had been in place since its founding.

"The board of directors makes the main management decisions."

At the same time, the EOT includes a trustee whose role is to ensure that future leadership continues to operate in accordance with the purpose and principles of the trust.

This structure provides continuity while helping protect the employee ownership mission over the long term.

Paras also negotiated a provision allowing her approval rights over any future sale of the company, ensuring that the organization's future direction remains aligned with its original purpose.

How EOT Advisors Helped Structure the Transition

The transition from founder ownership to employee ownership required valuation work, transaction structuring, trust design, governance planning, and succession planning.

Working with EOT Advisors, Paras & Associates completed the transaction in approximately four to five months.

The structure allowed employees to become beneficiaries of ownership without contributing personal capital. Instead, the company would gradually repay the founders over a ten-year period using future profits.

Paras credits Chris Michael and EOT Advisors with helping the company understand and implement the Employee Ownership Trust model.

"Chris was not only our lawyer for the transaction, but he's also our trustee."

That ongoing relationship helped ensure that the employee ownership structure remained aligned with the company's mission and long-term goals.

Leaving the Company in Good Hands

For Melinda Paras, the most rewarding part of the transition was knowing that the company would remain in the hands of people who believed in its purpose.

"One of the things I really value about our company is the team that we've been able to put together."

Rather than seeing ownership concentrated in a small group of investors or transferred to an outside buyer, the EOT allows employees to participate directly in the company's future success.

"I can't feel better about leaving the company than having it be in their hands."

For companies whose value extends beyond financial performance alone, Paras & Associates demonstrates how an Employee Ownership Trust can preserve mission, reward employees, and provide founders with a meaningful succession solution.

About EOT Advisors

EOT Advisors is the first U.S. financial services firm dedicated to Employee Ownership Trusts. Working with business owners in all 50 states, the firm guides each sale from start to finish: advisory, valuation, tax planning, financing, legal coordination, and trust administration.

To learn whether an EOT is the right path for your company, schedule a free consultation or call (800) 289-9865.