Designing a profitable growth strategy for two or five years is one thing, but we want to be anchoring our corner of Kansas City, serving our customers and providing great jobs 100 years from now. When you want to be a 100-year-old company, you prioritize resilience. The decision to become an ESOP was the perfect fit for us culturally because our 68 employees already act like owners, and it fit strategically because it removed the usually fatal event of a future ownership change. As an ESOP, Schier ownership, its purpose, and its culture now have a great chance of remaining intact across generations.