ESOP gives Southbridge firm’s employee-owners a bigger stake
by John Dignam
TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
As he began thinking about the future of his
company without him, Luke J. Carpentier remembers, he was hearing news reports about company buyouts and lost jobs, new management
and ruinous changes.
“I didn’t want it to happen here,” said Mr. Carpentier, 50, owner of
Expert Laser Services Inc. “I couldn’t let it go to somebody who could possibly destroy it, to a new management that would change the rules.”
On March 12, he fnalized the sale of the company to people he is confdent will keep it moving forward— his employees.
Expert Laser Services, with 22 employees, has become one of an
estimated 10,000 companies in the country with employee stock ownership plans, or ESOPs, which allow workers to become the owners of
their companies.