Initially growing organically with a core team of seven or eight employees, the company steadily expanded, adding key contributors and outside sales personnel. In 2011, the company transitioned to a 40% Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), with the remaining 60% retained by the founders. Several years later, the Dudeks fully retired, converting the company to a 100% ESOP. “Now we’re running under a 100% ESOP. We have a board, president, and two stores, one here in Elk Grove Village and one in East Dundee, and we employ about 40 people,” Brookes says. 82 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 12, ISSUE 08
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