Longtime Chester company celebrates employee ownership month

CHESTER » Fisher Tank Company, founded in 1948 in Chester, is celebrating National Employee Ownership Month this October. With locations in Chester; Leesville, S.C.; and Cropwell, Ala., Fisher Tank Company is 100 percent employee-owned through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).

Fisher Tank Company provides engineering, fabrication, construction, maintenance and repair for field erected welded steel storage tanks. Fisher Tank Company serves customers in a variety of industries, including municipal water storage, bulk liquid storage terminals, power generation, chemical & petrochemical production and storage, military and commercial fueling, manufacturing, mining and other applications. The company operates a fabrication

facility, maintenance shop, fittings shop and its corporate headquarters office in Chester.

All three Fisher Tank Company locations will be participating in ESOP Month with special activities, including an ESOP breakfast featuring special appearances from Fisher retirees, a company-wide ESOP Pumpkin Challenge carving contest, and special ESOP swag for members. ESOP Month is a great time to celebrate the success of the organization and to recognize the value of employee ownership as well as the value of the employee owners.

There are approximately 7,000 ESOP companies in the United States, covering nearly eleven million employees. About 4,000 of those ESOP organizations are 100 percent-employee owned. Total assets owned by U.S. ESOPs was estimated at $940 billion at the end of 2011, with that number expected to grow.

“We are proud to be an ESOP organization and proud of our employee owners’ commitment to our company motto of ‘Safety, Quality and Productivity, and in that order,’” said Fisher President Mike Szelak. “Every day, our employee owners’ efforts ensure our success and the success of our customers’ projects.”

Fisher Tank Company has been an ESOP organization since 1997, and offers its full time employees remarkable retirement benefits through the ESOP. For information on Fisher Tank Company and ESOP, visit www.fishertank.com and www.esopassociation.org