GOSHEN — The employees of Troyer Foods will have a new owner in the future — themselves.
At a company banquet Saturday night, owners Becky and Paris Ball-Miller announced they will be converting their food distribution company to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. That means the employees will gradually buy out the Ball-Millers and own the company.
The owners said Friday before the banquet that the ownership change will take 10 years.
"We are proud of the company our associates have helped build, and it is important that we implement an ownership change that rewards their efforts, preserves our culture and ensures that Troyer Foods continues to have a positive influence on Goshen and other communities in which we operate. This also allows us to continue to lead our organization to even greater success in the years ahead," the owners said.
The company’s stock has been transferred to TF Interholdings Employee Stock Ownership Plan.
The owners said they have no children to pass the business on to and they did not want to sell outright to another corporation, which might have decided to relocate the company or make changes that would impact their 280 employees.
Right now the Ball-Millers are actively managing the company, but they looked down the road and saw a need for succession planning.
"It’s what we call our 10 years plan," Becky said. "It fits well with our values and with our company"
"This assures the business stays in the community," Paris added.
The business is not only in the Goshen community, but also in Evansville, Grandview and Bloomington, where Troyer has facilities. The company distributes food and equipment within Indiana and in all the surrounding states.
Becky explained that in the employee buyout process, employees will receive financial stakes based on their salaries.
According to the ESOP Association, "a company which wants to set up an ESOP creates a trust to which it makes annual contributions. These contributions are allocated to individual employee accounts within the trust. A number of different formulas may be used for allocation. The most common is allocation in proportion to compensation, but formulas allocating stock according to years of service, some combination of compensation and years of service, and equally, have all been used."
The Ball-Millers said that to prepare for the change they hired experts to guide them through the process and to make sure Internal Revenue Service requirements were followed.
Two other Goshen companies are operated as ESOPS — Rieth-Riley Construction and Ancon Construction.
Troyer Foods was founded in 1948 in Vandalia, Mich. by Al and Elroy Troyer. The Ball-Millers have owned the company for 15 years. The headquarters are located on Ind. 4 just east of Goshen.
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