Birkey’s Transfers 100% company ownership to employee stock ownership plan

Birkey’s Farm Store, headquartered in Champaign, is now 100% employee-owned, as it has transitioned its business structure to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan as of Dec. 31.

Birkey’s Farm Store has served Illinois and Indiana since 1954. What was once an operation in a small shop has grown to a network of 18 locations and more than 450 employees in its now 100% employee-owned organization.

Birkey’s is a dealer for Case IH agriculture and Case construction equipment.

The Birkey’s network serves the Illinois communities of Annawan, Arthur, Bloomington, Casey, Galesburg, Gibson City, Henry, Hoopeston, Macomb, Mattoon, Newton, Oakland, Polo, Prophetstown, Shelbyville, and Urbana, as well as Williamsport, Ind.

“Our employees are the reason for our success and creating the ESOP will recognize and reward them for their efforts going forward,” said Mike Hedge, Birkey’s President and CEO. “Being employee-owned allows us to preserve our culture for many years in the future and provides us a way to move forward seamlessly and achieve our goals, while preserving the service our customers have come to expect.”

“Recent research has shown companies who are ESOPs are typically faster, more productive, growing more, and more profitable with less turnover,” Hedge added. “These are all important to us as we enter into a new phase in the life of our organization. This will help in recruiting, retaining and engaging employees as we move forward. I’m very pleased to announce Birkey’s is going into this new year 100% employee-owned.”

An ESOP is an employee benefit plan, facilitated through a trust, which provides company stock to employees as part of their retirement benefits.

Congress created these plans to make it possible to transfer ownership to employees in a tax-favored way. According to the National Center for Employee Ownership, there are approximately 6,500 ESOPs in the United States holding total assets of more than $1.6 trillion and covering nearly 14 million participants.

As a 100% ESOP owned company, all of Birkey’s stock is now held in trust by the ESOP exclusively for the benefit of Birkey’s employees.

For more information, go to www.birkeys.com.