When private equity firm KKR announced the $3 billion sale Monday of C.H.I. Overhead Doors to steel company Nucor, it created a windfall for hundreds of hourly workers at the plant in tiny Arthur, Ill., who will receive between $20,000 and $800,000 each when the transaction closes.
The deal represents a huge return on investment for KKR, which bought the garage door manufacturer for $600 million in 2015. For employees, who were vested with equity in the company at no charge, the sale is potentially life-changing.
“I had no idea that was going to be this big of a deal,” said Rhonda Jamison, 60, office manager at C.H.I. Overhead Doors.
Jamison, a 17-year veteran of the garage door company, learned about the sale and her six-figure payout at an all-employee meeting last week. The payouts vary based on seniority and salary, with some long-tenured truck drivers — the highest-paid hourly workers — hauling home upward of $800,000 from the sale.
More than 630 hourly workers and truck drivers will receive an average of $180,000 through the sale, the company said.
Located in Arthur, a village of about 2,100 residents south of Champaign illinois, the 41-year-old company makes garage doors for commercial and residential use. When KKR bought the company in 2015, it allowed all 800 workers — including salaried employees — to participate in the stock ownership plan as a free benefit.
Employees who earned more than $100,000 per year were also allowed to invest their own money into the...
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