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n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m M a r c h / A p r i l 2 0 1 9 | n e w h a v e n B I Z 11 M E E T T H E M A K E R Employee stock ownership 'represents a commitment from employees to the company — and a commitment from the company to its employees.' - Mike Rocheleau ny to partner with companies that support defense and homeland security, accounting for another 15 to 20 percent of its business. By nurturing successful re- lationships with partners in its supply chains, Rocheleau says PTA gains insights down the pipeline to better position itself to train and upgrade employees' skill sets, and to invest in new technologies to support its clients' needs and keep relationships strong moving into the future. "It's that insight that we work to gain to stay ahead of the competition by regularly involving ourselves in trade shows and industry associations and constantly looking ahead to see what we need to do, how we need to position ourselves to be successful," Rocheleau says. Today PTA generates about $35 million in annual revenues. "A prospective customer will come to us with a design of a product that they're looking to make," Rocheleau says. "Some- times it's a formal drawing and sometimes it's nothing more than a napkin sketch. We engage with the engineering department to review their designs and provide engineering support and feedback about how they can turn a concept into something working through iterations of a concept until we get a mature design." 2012 ownership transition Rocheleau credits the company's long track record of success to its employees — a number of whom have been with PTA for four de- cades. So much so that seven years ago, the company transitioned its ownership to the people who worked there. Confronted with a decision about whether, how and to whom to sell the Oxford-based plastics business, then-PTA principal owner Ray Seeley took the road less traveled, selling his stake in the company and setting up an Employee Stock Ownership Plan trust in 2012. "We had a commitment to our employees and the locations we operate in," Seeley said. "e ESOP plan was a way to preserve all of the things that were good about PTA — like our employ- ees and company culture — that might have not existed if someone else acquired us." Similar to the way employ- ees become vested in a defined benefit pension plan, employees must work for the company for a minimum period of time before becoming vested in the ESOP. Each year, employees earn shares of stock, and based on the company's financial performance earn additional shares as the value of those shares appreciates over time. "When we formed the ESOP in 2012, the total value of the shares that were in employee accounts $390,000," says Roche- leau. In 2019, "We are closing our ESOP on Feb. 28 and the value in employee accounts excess of $3 million. Over the course of the seven years, employees will have benefitted approaching ten-fold in terms of the [per-share] value." at investment pays off in employee commitment, loyalty — and longevity. Rocheleau says the average length of service of PTA Plastics employees is a remarkable 12 years. He says the ESOP structure also plays a major role in employees' general happiness and motivation. "e objective is where for an associate — it's just a job. But to have the mindset of an owner, they can connect their hard work and their efforts and the way they improve things at PTA to having a direct influence on their shares of the company," Rocheleau explains. e number of companies offering some form of employee stock ownership has more than doubled since 1980, when only 4,000 had one in place, according to the National Center for Em- ployee Ownership. As of 2015 (the most recent year for which data is available) there were 6,669 ESOPs in the United States, representing total assets of nearly $1.3 trillion. "ESOP is turning from a short range to a very long range view of employment," Rocheleau explains. "It's a commitment from em- ployees to the company — and a commitment from the company to its employees. n PTA Plastic's Connecticut plant on Christian Road in Oxford

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