What it means for our employees is that every full-time employee, and most part-time employees have a direct path to ownership of company stock at no cost to them. The company employee ownership stock program (ESOP) is a way for employees to increase their overall retirement accounts. Nationally, employee-owners have more than twice the average total retirement balance of most Americans. The reason for this is only 1 in 200 companies are employee-owned. This also makes our company more successful. Employee-owners are more likely to contribute ideas, work harder, and give better service to the communities we serve.