Business View Magazine March 2023

115 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 12 AWG serves over 1,100 member companies and over 3,400 locations throughout 31 states from 9 wholesale Divisions. Consolidated run-rate sales for AWG are over $11 billion. In addition to its cooperative wholesale operations, the company also operates subsidiary companies which provide certain real estate and supermarket development services, print and digital marketing services, health and beauty care, general merchandise, pharmaceutical products, specialty foods, and natural and organic products. For more information, visit: AWGinc.com. manufacturing and distribution, consumer products, insurance, and construction industries. Recent and forthcoming acquisitions by Houchens can involve existing ESOPs as well. The 2021 acquisition of Lee Masonry Products, Inc. and the subsequent merger of the existing Lee Masonry ESOP into the Houchens ESOP are a great example. Lee Masonry Products was established by Ray Lee in Frankfort, Kentucky in 1963 and became a 100 percent employee-owned company in 2006. It is a manufacturer of concrete blocks and specialty concrete products and a distributor of clay masonry products for commercial and residential use. Through both acquisition and the addition of new production facilities, Lee Masonry had grown to operate 27 facilities in three states with over 400 employees. Then in late December 2022, Houchens announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Air Hydro Power (AHP). AHP is a HOUCHENS INDUSTRI ES