I reported about this a few months ago, but held back on the name of the company before I saw more online activity. I found it today;
Anybody know what happened to Gage Brothers in the last year? Looks like they were bought out by Molin Concrete and now their ESOP is worth nothing as a result of the sale.
An ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) is a retirement plan that gives employees ownership in their company, often using a trust fund to buy company stock, aligning employee and shareholder interests for better performance, and serving as a valuable benefit or an owner’s exit strategy, providing tax advantages for both the company and seller, though it’s distinct from a 401(k) and involves complex governance by a trustee.
This confirmed to me that Gage Brothers was bought out, which I knew, but didn’t really know the details of the buy out, including most of the employees getting screwed on the sale. As I understand it when the company was bought they were in serious financial straights and facing bankruptcy, basically their competitor bought the place on a fire sale, so if you had ESOP stock, it was greatly reduced in value. Some employees told me they got $0 from their investment after the sale.
It goes to show that leadership is important;
Their president and part owner died suddenly 5 years ago. He had been with the company for decades and was the main visionary that oversaw their growth. After that it’s been a sad fall from where they were. They’ve been plagued by qc issues and the recent hudderite competition. Sucks for the employees and sucks that a company that used to lead the industry has fallen so far.
Pretty crazy that a signature company in Sioux Falls can fall so fast when one of their leaders dies. I tell people, strong leadership is important, and why I have pushed for a city manager instead of an elected mayor. I also think open government is important to TRAIN the leaders of the future.
I’m surprised this hasn’t been a bigger story in the news. And what’s up with the Hoots in the concrete bizzo?
‘We got turkeys, watermelons and precast walls. And if you buy a precast wall today we will throw in a free drumstick a whole watermelon and three 10 year old hoot boys to clean your garage for an afternoon.’
Who can beat those prices!!!!!???
The craftsmen at various Hutterite colonies reverse engineer a lot of things and then set up their shops to produce the item.
A business network connection of mine once shared with me that a Hutterite colony was interested in buying an engineered metal building. I think what he meant to say, “they really need/want 2, or more engineered metal buildings, but are happy to buy one in order that they can reverse engineer it and then produce more buildings to the specifications they reverse engineer from the first building.
A most unusual application which was likely reverse engineered and constructed at a Hutterite colony – a boar bot designed to lead a boar through a swine breeding barn to stimulate sows into estrus and to aid in detection of estrus in order that the sows could be presented for breeding.
Not a peep from the Chamber Cheerleader over at sf.biz.
I know, I complain all the time about developers in this town tearing down things they shouldn’t, but Gage Brothers had a really nice, and well preserved, mid century cement wall on 12th Street in front their offices and adjacent to I-29, which should have not been torn down. It could have easily have been incorporated into the new development and with some landscaping around it. There are not a lot of walls like that left in this town. The only one I know of is at 33rd Street and Holly Avenue:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/76502007@N00/4261717598