Transcription
Why is this burger spot private equity's worst nightmare? Let's go find out.
I'm Kathy Terry. And I'm Patrick Terry. And we are the co-founders of Perry's Burger Stand.
Perry's opened their first burger stand 21 years ago. At 45, Patrick finally decided to take a shot at his dream. And the result was a 520 ft spot that had three windows and no AC. The first years nearly broke them.
When we started, we were literally doing everything. You know, we wore all the hats. Really long days, really hot days. It just never seemed like it let up.
How do you get through that? Like what what is the motivation ear in those early stages?
Well, it was sheer determination, you know, just not wanting to fail.
This determination paid off. The Terry's went from hand patting their burgers to 38 locations and 1,800 employees. But when it came time to cash in, they had something different in mind.
A lot of business owners today are selling their companies to private equity, but you guys decided to sell it to your employees. What led to that decision? You know, we laughed that, you know, when we had the opportunity to sell the business, we we could go buy our own private island, but then that would be really lonely.
In the end, we realized that giving our employees something back, more than just a salary or Christmas bonus, was something that we just should do. And so Kathy took this project on years ago and went through all the different girrations to get to where we where we ended up.
What they created is called an employee ownership trust. Instead of selling to investors, they put the company in a trust for their employees. Profits get shared with the people who work there. The culture they built now belongs to the people who built it. 1,800 employees, 38 locations, a diehard customer base. Are you living the dream?
It's pretty great being Terry. I mean, it really is. And I think our employees got a great surprise with the profit sharing and EOT. So, yeah, the future's so bright, I got to wear shades. Follow Earning Earth for more business stories.