WATERLOO, Iowa--Employees of the VGM Group will eventually take ownership of the company under a new stock option program announced last week.

VGM's new program will create a system where its associates will accumulate ownership in the company over time and, eventually, will own the entire company. Over the next few decades, Van G. Miller, CEO and founder, Jim Walsh and John Deery Jr., both minority stockholders in the HME buying group, said that they will be selling the multi-million dollar organization to its more than 400 employees.

"We're only here because of one reason--you people," Miller told associates last week during a celebration of VGM's employee stock option program. "Why shouldn't you own the company?"

Neither Miller nor Walsh will be retiring any time soon. Miller will continue his role as CEO and chairman of the board. There will be no change in day-to-day operations, which will continue to be run by the current management team.