Charlotte-area company plans big boost for workers as it eyes expansion
Davidson-based Ingersoll Rand is giving hundreds of local employees — and thousands globally — a big reason to “act like owners” with a major equity grant of restricted stock, the manufacturing company announced Monday.
The grant, worth $150 million in total, will go to all employees not already part of the equity program — roughly 540 employees out of the 600 in Davidson will receive a grant. Ingersoll Rand has close to 16,000 employees globally across 300 locations, Reynal said.
In the equity grant program, employees will receive Restricted Stock Units, with a vesting period of two years, equal to 20% of their annual base salary, according to Ingersoll Rand.
“This $150 million employee equity grant is an investment in employees,” Ingersoll Rand CEO Vicente Reynal said in an interview with the Observer. “…When you have an ownership stake in something, you’re more invested in the success of the long term. So we know positive results will occur when you make everyone in the company an owner and grant them the opportunity to participate in growth.”
The company is new to Davidson, though the name is not. The new Ingersoll Rand formed under a spinoff-merger of the original Ingersoll Rand’s industrial business with formerly Milwaukee-based Gardner Denver.
The new company moved its headquarters to Davidson after wrapping up the merger deal in early March — just weeks before the coronavirus pandemic hit North Carolina.
The original Ingersoll Rand, still based in Davidson, became Trane Technologies, the Charlotte Business Journal reported in March.
Reynal moved to the Davidson area this year along with the company and 24 other executive and senior leaders, he said.
“We clearly have more skin in the game here in the local community,” Reynal said.
‘A lot of trust’
Michael Borkowski, the laboratory manager at the Davidson facility, said he and his team have been hearing about the possibility of an equity grant for some time. He’s worked at Ingersoll Rand in Davidson for 15 years.
“We’ve been anticipating it anxiously,” he said. “And really, to see the business do this for us now ... it is a new company with new leadership and a merged team now — it’s given the team a lot of trust.”
Reynal said the goal of the equity grant is to have employees think like owners. That makes a lot of sense to Borkowski.
“It does change your perspective a little bit,” Borkowski said. “You’ve got a vested interest now.”
Gardner Denver, now an Ingersoll Rand brand, previously gave employees an equity grant in 2017. Since then, employees saw an 80% increase in the value of those shares, according to a statement from Ingersoll Rand.
Reynal hopes to double the company’s business in five years — and that includes bringing jobs to the Charlotte area, he said. In fact, the company has multiple job listings posted online for locations in Charlotte, Davidson, Southern Pines and Mocksville.
The company did report layoffs immediately after the merger, WFAE reported in March.
“Based on the merger, we were required to make some difficult decisions regarding some personnel redundancies,” Reynal said.
But Reynal said the company moved quickly to minimize job loss and create a COVID-19 task force as the pandemic affected businesses across the U.S.
This story was originally published September 21, 2020 at 10:30 AM.
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