Hard and often bitter lessons from the ownership transitions ofother enterprises in the chromatography market convinced Restek’s shareholders to sell the company to its employees–a transaction that has allowed the enterprise to start 2009 with 100 percent of its shares committed to its Employee Stock Ownership Plan.
Formed in 1985 to provide consumable parts and materials for gas and liquid chromatography, Restek employs some 275 people, has experienced double digit growth in most of its 23 years, with the exception of several years of triple digit growth that earned it a place in the early 1990s on Inc. Magazine’s list of the 500 Fast Growing Companies. Currently it has more than $50 million in annual sales, starting originally from a sales base of approximately $150,000. Selling more than 15,000 highly technical parts from its catalog, the company is also recognized among the best places to work in Pennsylvania, and made the Wall Street Journal’s 2007 list of the 15 Top Small Workplaces in the United States.
“There’s a history in this industry” that forced the owners to look for an alternative path of ownership succession to protect Restek’s widely admired corporate culture, says Don McCandless, Head Coach and President. “The story is repeated time and time again. Larger analytical companies purchase smaller successful innovative chromatography companies to gain new technology or increase their consumable market share. However, it is not long until consolidation and financially driven decisions destroy the innovative culture, create mistrust, and drive key employees to competitors.”
The wish for an alternative to that scenario inspired Paul Silvis, the company founder, to form the ESOP in 1997, and then begin his transition as the head of the company in 2005, which culminated at the end of last year with completion of purchase of the remaining 75 percent of shares (25 percent had been transferred to the ESOP since 1995).
Silvis, who started this year heading Restek-spinoff Silcotek, says, “My vision is that entrepreneurs all over the world can take a look at this ESOP, if it really works, and say that’s a good model.”
Having just added 40,000 square feet of new manufacturing space, Restek appears positioned to grow, and, even in this year of adjustment, it’s likely that the company will be adding about 10 new employees, McCandless says.
Source: Restek, Don McCandless
Writer: Joseph Plummer
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