October is Employee Ownership Month

What does it mean to be an Employee Owner?

In October we celebrate Employee Ownership Month, but what does it actually mean to be an employee owner? As a 100% employee-owned company, every Corporate Image employee who has met the eligibility requirements to participate in our Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) receives shares in our company stock every year. When we at Corporate Image say we work with an ownership mindset, it’s because each of our employee owners actually owns a portion of our company!

Our company requested and received a proclamation from Iowa Governor, Kim Reynolds, declaring October Employee Ownership Month!

Being an ESOP means great things for our customers and for our employees! In the spirit of Employee Ownership Month, we’d like to thank all of our employee owners for their hard work and share a little bit about what makes being an ESOP so special!

Active wealth-building

ESOPs are a great tool for uplifting local economies because they provide wealth-building opportunities for employee owners who become vested in our ESOP. The term “vesting” may seem unfamiliar, but all it really means is that our employee owners are rewarded for their loyalty as the percentage of their ESOP account balance that they own increases over time. Think of it like this: the more time an employee owner invests in our ESOP, the more wealth they build!

Our ESOP is more than an incentive—it’s an opportunity to truly become part of our company. With decades of experience, we are proud to call Corporate Image a place where craft reigns above all. Our employee owners strive for perfection in their work to delight our customers because they own our business, and want to put our best foot forward in every interaction.

Opportunities for growth

As an employee-owned company, we are interested in helping our fellow employee owners grow a wealth of experience as well! Corporate Image empowers employee owners to contribute their ideas and put their expertise to work in every exercise. Employee owners critically engage at every level whether they are attending quarterly ESOP conferences with a local chapter of The ESOP Association, or recommending a new system of entering orders to streamline our in-house processes.

This employee owner engagement also applies to our client relationships—we have a deep desire to create solutions that benefit our clients and take their branding to the next level. As the print and packaging industry continues to innovate, we innovate alongside it; investing in new CI RIGIDBOX™ product styles, and more efficient equipment for our manufacturing plant, all in an effort to better serve our customers!

Engaging with our community

Working with an employee-owned company means working for an organization that’s dedicated to uplifting our local community in more ways than one. By creating stable jobs, ESOPs help grow the local economy. However, our ownership mindset doesn’t stop there. We actively engage in our community by sponsoring events we believe in as well as donating our time.

Our ESOP builds confident and compassionate employees who look to give back just as much as they put in!

Let's grow our ESOP tree together to harvest the fruits of Pride, Job Security, Ownership Culture, Opportunity, and Wealth.

Every employee owner grows our ESOP with excellent service and dedication to our craft.

We take pride in being an ESOP—it’s almost been ten years since our previous owner, Fritz James, sold the company to his employees. As an employee-owned company, we have continued to grow and hone our craft. Our ownership mindset works in tandem with our American-made mindset which is: Superior quality, consistently, in everything that we do!