Becoming Employee-Owned Has Paid Off Dividends for Haley Ward
2020 was a huge year for Haley Ward, a technical consulting firm specializing in engineering, environmental and surveying services, headquartered in Bangor, Maine. The organization was in the process of expanding their business, had just closed on a few major acquisitions, and was refreshing its brand after 40+ years in business as CES, Inc.
It was at this time that Haley Ward President Denis St. Peter got a tip from another local business leader on a unique structure that could take his firm to the next level.,
“We were having a lot of success as a C-Corp and weren’t necessarily looking to change anything,” Haley Ward President Denis St. Peter says. “It just so happened that we met a Associates’ client, and he asked us why we hadn’t considered becoming an ESOP to further accelerate the good growth curve we were on.”
That remark led St. Peter and his team to take a closer look at turning Haley Ward into an employee-owned organization through an ESOP transaction. To do this, they enlisted the help Bellview Associates,the leading investment banking advisory firm focused on ESOP-owned companies, who had guided over 140+ companies representing $20bn in transactional value through the process. .
True to form for a group of award-winning engineers, Haley Ward’s leadership team began a thorough vetting process.
“We looked at everything closely,” St. Peter said. “The more we learned, we realized that, with our experienced management team and our vision for the future, we could grow faster and really surpass our goals as an employee-owned company.”
The reasons for Haley Ward to convert to an employee-owned company kept stacking up. In addition to achieving tax exemption at both the federal and state level, which would keep more capital in the business to fuel more acquisitions of new businesses and greater hiring, the testimonials they heard from other ESOP-owned company leaders and employees were glowing. St. Peter reached out to other companies who had converted into employee-owned businesses and heard that, while company management continued to maintain operational control and run the business as they always had, the ability to share in some of the fruits of everyone’s hard work with employees was a real game-changer.
Haley Ward decided to take the plunge and became an ESOP-owned corporation in 2020. Even with the pandemic hitting in March and throwing a curveball, the business continued and was, according to Marketing Director Jessamine Pottle, even better equipped to weather the storm.
“It may have slowed us down a bit, but it was the perfect time to make those changes,” Pottle said. “We were better prepared for everything during the pandemic and coming out of it.”
Four years later, the momentum hasn’t slowed down for Haley Ward. Being an ESOP has proven to be a valuable asset in surpassing the firm’s most ambitious goals, just as St. Peter predicted.
Now, when Haley Ward enters conversations around acquiring a new business, its ESOP status is a powerful bargaining chip, both in terms of the tax efficiencies they can bring to acquired companies but also in terms of culture.
“When I’m meeting with owners who want to sell, the common thread is that they want what’s best for their employees,” St. Peter says. “Because of that, they feel like we’re the best fit.”
From day one, Haley Ward’s 240+ employees, both tenured and new, immediately get “skin in the game” as St. Peter puts it. It’s exciting for everyone to see how much the stock has grown, even in a short period of time.
“We set a 15% growth goal from our board, and we’ve been averaging well above that,” St. Peter says. “For the last couple of years, we’ve had a 60% increase. It’s great for our employees when they don’t have to pay anything for their shares. They just need to work and do a good job. For them to see that increase year after year is pretty incredible.”
Fundamentally, St. Peter says, “Everyone is involved and wants to do a good job because we’re all invested in our success.”
Working with Bellview and becoming an ESOP was an overwhelmingly positive experience, St. Peter says, that he would recommend to other business owners, adding that the team was very innovative in building a personalized ESOP program for Haley Ward that would match it’s goals.
For Haley Ward, the future is more exciting than ever.
“We’re creating new opportunities for our people every week,” St. Peter tells us. “We’ve got plenty of room still to grow.”