Employees to claim large payouts as Arthur company is sold

ARTHUR, Ill. (WAND) - As C.H.I . Overhead Doors is sold, employees will take home substantial cash pay-outs, The News-Gazette reports. 

The business will be sold to Nucor Corp. in a deal valued at $3 billion, current owner Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co. - a global investment firm - said. An agreement has been signed with the sale expected to close in June or soon after that time. Nucor said regulatory approval remains pending in May. 

All 800 C.H.I. employees became owners in a move KKR made when it acquired the C.H.I. business in 2015. 

Hourly employees and truck drivers will receive about $175,000 on average as a payout on their equity, with C.H.I.'s most tenured workers making substantially more, KKR said. This is on top of about $9,000 in dividends paid out since 2015. 

KKR is also giving employees 12 months of pre-paid personal finance coaching and tax preparation services. This will be provided through Goldman Sachs Ayco Personal Finance Management and Ernst & Young. 

The News-Gazette spoke with forklift and facility maintenance worker Jason Harlin, who said employees knew there would be payments, but "we didn't know it was going to be this kind of money." He said everyone has been smiling since the "mind-blowing" news came out. 

According to Harlin, even workers who have been with C.H.I. since January 2022 will take home as much as $20,000. 

Nucor, the soon-to-be owner of C.H.I., is based in Charlotte, N.C. It manufactures steel and steel products. It has plants operating in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. 

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