Business View Magazine - Nov 2023

144 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 11 Treasurer, who later became President in 1987. The ESOP structure allowed them to overcome the higher level of fiduciary responsibility of the profit-sharing plan that prevented the plan itself from owning stock in the company. Next, based on Tramburg’s expert recommendation, the company began annual asset rebalancing. “Basically,” Tramburg explains, “we reshuffle the money every year so that everybody in the plan has the same percentage of stock.” This practice was a massive deal, as it allowed the company to gain the leverage it needed to hire new people and get them plugged into the ESOP in an immediately substantial way. While other companies have followed, this remains a largely unique practice within the industry. Lastly, the final component that catalyzed Vita Plus’ incredible success was securing key advisors to help them establish the ownership culture they sought to cement within the company ethos. Firms like Menke & Associates, Boardman, Suhr, Curry, and Field, RSM US LLP, and Suby, Von Hayden & Associates were all among the names of advisors who guided Vita Plus. They provided counsel on anything from accounting to employee education of the ESOP to modifications of the ESOP structure. The resulting profits of such precise counsel were shared at a steady 25%, a remnant percentage of the former profit-sharing plan that has rolled over into the current ESOP. Over Three and a Half Decades of Achievement The ensuing decades after Vita Plus laid its internal groundwork could only be described as an upward boom. In 1987, a year after the ESOP went live, the company recorded annual sales of $13 million. In 2005, Vita Plus reported $100 million in sales, only to double those sales to discretion of the Board of Directors, up to 25% of the company’s profits were allocated to all employees who met certain requirements. In later years, this program became the precursor to the current employee stock ownership plan. Setting the Foundation for Employee Engagement The factor that transformed the initial profit-sharing program into the ESOP framework Vita Plus uses today was a strong drive to share the results and profits they generated with all employees. The first step to achieving that result involved an ownership succession plan enacted in 1976. Senior management could buy out Lyle Hill’s shares (Wally Henderson’s shares had been previously redeemed). The second step was the institution of the 1986 employee stock ownership plan, made at the suggestion of Robert “Bob” Tramburg, then Bob Tramburg