This represents a fantastic opportunity for Black, Latinx and other people of color entrepreneurs and employees to purchase the company as a way to retain jobs and diversify the ownership of our manufacturing sector. 

Based on survey research commissioned for this project and performed by the UIC Great Cities Institute: 

• 73% of the sampled manufacturing companies in the Chicagoland area have an owner over the age of 55.
• 61% of the firms surveyed are at immediate risk due to lacking a defined ownership succession plan and have not chosen a suitable successor. 

In a report by the Ohio Employee Ownership Center, it was noted that, “The failure to plan for business succession in small and medium-sized companies is the leading preventable cause of job loss in the United States.”  This is a long-standing problem in Chicago and around the country. Small, privately-held companies are hidden in plain sight, and there is relatively little information about the companies.  Issues of succession of ownership are viewed as a private family concern, and often not addressed until it’s too late.

That is what RE/CAST is all about.  RE/CAST is a program design developed by Manufacturing Renaissance (MR). While the initiative is not yet operational, Re/Cast can be an effective tool to retain manufacturing companies and to diversify ownership in the manufacturing sector.  Re/Cast would identify companies facing a succession challenge through our Early Warning Network that gathers public data on companies as well as tapping into the knowledge of employees, unions, financial advisors, business associations, local government and others who have direct contact with the owners of companies.

MR has a long history in identifying this challenge/opportunity; and has arranged the acquisition of companies by employees and BIPOC entrepreneurs in the past.  We are also inspired by a similar project in Barcelona, Spain that has the same features of Re/Cast and that arranged 600 acquisitions last year alone.  Our work has been supported by the Chicago Community Trust, LISC Chicago, and the Cook County Bureau of Economic Development.

We believe that this is a critical component of any economic development agenda across the country that seeks to both retain and expand manufacturing as a tool for equitable, inclusive development while making our economies more sustainable and resilient.  

For more information, contact Dan Swinney