Since becoming a majority-owned ESOP company in 1997, American Systems Corp. has topped 20 percent growth annually. In that time, share value has increased fivefold, a result of revenue growth and profitability.

“Employee owners, as stakeholders, perform better, perform more wisely, and net better results for the company, for the customers, and for themselves,” said chief financial officer Mark Danisewicz.

American Systems, based in the Washington suburb of Chantilly, Virginia, is one of the largest employee-owned companies in the country, with more than 1,000 active employees vested in the plan.

The service provider was not immune to the financial crisis that nearly collapsed Wall Street last year, however. Share value dipped, but it “was not as severe as the annual decline in national stock-performance benchmark indices including the Standard & Poor’s 500 or the Dow Jones industrial average,” Danisewicz said.

That’s a familiar refrain from ESOP proponents, and data backs it up.

According to tentative results from the 18th annual ESOP Economic Performance Survey from the Employee Ownership Foundation, which has yet to be released, 88 percent of 431 respondents said their companies performed better than the Dow Jones, S&P, and Nasdaq.

In 2008, the Dow Jones lost 33.8 percent, the S&P 38.6 percent, and Nasdaq 40.5 percent.

“It is not correct that the collapse of the stock market means all the employees of ESOP companies are taking it on the chin,” said Michael Keeling, president of the ESOP Association in Washington. “Many of them are doing much better than the market.”