We moved to employee ownership

We’re very excited for this next chapter and are looking forward to the positive changes this historic shift will bring to our people, partners, and customers.

While many companies are wrestling with retention and engagement, we decided to take our employee-focused culture to the next level and become employee-owned. Corovan prides itself on our long employee tenure—averaging about 7.4 years—and we want to do even better.

Employees are now our largest shareholder

Employees now own 49% of the business. We believe in our staff and want to give them the platform to take stock in the future success of our company.

With ESOP companies, retention rates are higher and we are looking forward to keeping our incredible team highly engaged for years to come. Our milestone Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) aims to increase our employees’ benefits, motivation, performance, and tax advantage—all benefits that our employees deserve.

An ESOP is an employee benefit plan that provides company stock interest to employees, complimenting their retirement benefits. Congress created ESOPs to facilitate ownership transitions in a tax-favored way. We are proud to be one of the nearly 6,500 ESOPs in the United States and join the 14 million employees benefiting from this business model.

Employee ownership is part of our journey

We have immense confidence in our team ahead of this transition. “Corovan is so employee-driven it’s not surprising at all to me that they felt this was a good idea and that they believed in their people enough to make us owners,” said David Blair, director of sales and logistics.

The Schmitz brothers have considered the transition to ESOP for several years and are thrilled to see it become a reality. As one brother said, “Who better to have as partners than our company employees?”

Since 1948, Corovan has served California businesses. We are the most prominent family-owned and operated commercial moving and storage company in the Western U.S. and want our employees to have a stake in the future success of our company.

Our employee-owners are happy about it, too

Our employees also have first-hand experience with our customers and their needs. Now more than ever, they’ll feel empowered to better serve you and provide the top-tier customer experience that has kept Corovan California’s prized corporate moving company for over 70 years.

We had the opportunity to chat with some of our employees and hear how they feel about this historic shift. Say hello to our new shareholders, and hear some of what they had to say about employee ownership: