SCS Engineers, a leading national environmental consulting and construction firm, recently achieved a significant milestone when it completed a transaction to become 100% employee-owned through its employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). SCS Engineers established its ESOP in 1986, and recently purchased a small number of outstanding shares from minority shareholders, achieving 100% ownership through the ESOP trust.
“Our founders could not have imagined that when they launched SCS Engineers in 1970 that we would grow to one of the nation’s most respected environmental engineering consultants with a footprint of more than 70 offices and nearly 1,000 employees across the United States,” said Jim Walsh, PE, BCEE, President and CEO of SCS Engineers.
“Our success and growth is a direct result of our employees thinking and acting like owners to deliver the best service for our customers. We believe employee ownership is a formidable advantage in recruiting and retaining top talent. Employee ownership provides an opportunity for them to share directly in the success they are helping to create.” Walsh said.
“This transaction delivers the flexibility to pursue sustainable growth for SCS Engineers and the opportunity to spread the wealth among our employee-owners,” he said.
An employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) is a qualified retirement benefit plan that gives employees a stake in the company through stock allocation. It provides a method for the company workforce to accumulate capital for retirement at no cost to the employee. According to the National Center for Employee Ownership, there are approximately 7,000 ESOP companies in the U.S., and 28 million employees participating in employee ownership plans.