NCEO dubs Davey largest ESOP service firm in the U.S.

June 17, 2014 - By LM Staff

The Davey Tree Expert Co. is the largest employee-owned service firm in the U.S., according to data from the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO).

The NCEO’s 2014 Employee Ownership 100 list includes the nation’s largest companies that are at least 50 percent owned by an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) or other broad-based employee ownership plan.

Davey, which employs 7,800 people, is the seventh-largest firm on the list that is 100 percent employee-owned and is the overall 17^th largest in the U.S. by total employees. Davey has been employee-owned since 1979 and is the largest employee-owned company in Ohio.

“People are our greatest assets,” said Karl Warnke, Davey’s chairman, president and CEO. “We have been committed to employee ownership for 35 years, and that unwavering dedication has allowed Davey to grow and become a stable yet progressive institution.”

The companies on the list employ approximately 710,000 people worldwide, up from 674,000 in 2013. Companies on both the 2013 and 2014 lists saw their employment rise approximately 4 percent.

An estimated 11 million people currently participate in 12,000 ESOPs in the U.S., according to the NCEO. ESOP companies have an estimated $858 billion in stock participation plan assets.

For more on ESOPs in the Green Industry, see “Ownership pride” from the April 2014 issue of Landscape Management.