Lumber Products Employee Stock Ownership Plan

Lumber Products is proud to be an employee owned company, since 1986. We are one of about 11,500 ESOP companies in the U.S.

What does that mean? One of the benefits Lumber Products provides is through the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), which is a form of retirement plan somewhat similar to a 401(k). Once an employee qualifies to participate in the ESOP they can earn shares of company stock through their hard work and dedication to the company. Additions, or contributions, are made to each individual’s stock account annually; so the longer an employee stays with the company, the more value in her or his ESOP account.

In an ESOP, company stock is privately held, and is not available for purchase. The value of the company stock is valued once per year by an independent appraiser (not daily like the public market). An individual’s ESOP account changes each year based on the company’s contribution and the stock value.

Shares are allowed to be “sold” back to the company at only certain times; which is unique to the ESOP and different than other retirement plans or publicly traded stock. Employees have the opportunity to exercise their distribution rights after retirement, termination, death or certified disability based on the details of the ESOP plan.

ESOPs can enhance the company’s success. A study by The ESOP Association reported overwhelmingly positive and remarkable results indicating that ESOPs appear to increase sales, employment, and sales/employee by about an average of 8.8% sales per employee advantage over their non-ESOP counterparts, and non-management employee input into innovation in work processes have a greater employee-owned advantage. We believe our employee owners have been fundamental in our success as an ESOP company, and their efforts have helped to set us apart from our competition. We are proud to celebrate 25 years of being an employee owned company!

If you are a current or previous employee owner:
ESOP 2010 Plan Year Statements were mailed to Participants the end of August 2011. If you are an employee that had left Lumber Products in 2010 or prior, you also had information in your packet that explained what distribution options were available to you this year based on the ESOP plan document.

If you were eligible for a distribution this year, the window to elect a distribution is now closed.  If you elected a distribution it will be processed through Principal Financial Group at www.principal.com or 800-547-7754.  Funds will be distributed by December 30, 2011 in the manner you elected; for funds that will be mailed, please keep in mind that the postal service schedule can be a little delayed due to the holidays.

For continuing participants, please note if you have a change of address or beneficiary contact the Lumber Products Human Resources Department at 503-692-3322 or: hrdepartment@lumberproducts.com.

The information above was updated on 11/14/2011