Popular northwest Omaha restaurant becomes employee-owned

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - The owners of Vincenzo’s Italian Ristorante in Northwest Omaha are retiring after 30 years.

However, instead of shutting down, they’re essentially selling it to their employees.

Former co-owner Bill Whitley says he and his partner started thinking about retiring a year ago, but he didn’t have an exit strategy.

Then he learned about Teamshares and eventually sold to them.

Teamshares is a company that buys businesses and claims to retain staff, keep it local and make the employees the owners. Teamshares’ website says the company’s mission is to put $10 billion worth of stock into the hands of hardworking Americans who otherwise wouldn’t have the chance.

Whitley said, “Teamshares came along, and there were two factors that were really important to us. Number one, they had no interest in changing the menus, changing the recipes. Number two, and probably most important, they had no desire to bring on any of their people. They wanted to maintain our staff.”

Here’s how it works: Employees earn stock ownership of the business. They also learn how to run a business and make more money. The idea is the quality will be maintained because employees own part of the business.

Teamshares bought the Don and Millie’s Restaurant chain in May 2023.

The new President, Kevin Ames of Omaha, tells 6 News all eight locations are employee-owned. Ames says no positions were replaced. However, he was brought in as President to backfill the former owner’s positions.

Whitley tells 6 News he knows there’s no guarantee that everything will stay the same because like every industry, the service is always changing.

6 News reached out to Teamshares but did not hear back.

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