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:
Never sell the company.
Continue sharing 25 percent of profits with employees.
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.