Grantham-based Yankee Barn Homes announced it has become employee-owned.

The company posted an announcement of the change on social media earlier this month.

The nearly 60-year-old firm’s founders, Paul Marinelli and Jeffrey Rosen, sold the company to employees via an employee stock ownership plan.

Marinelli and Rosen have owned the company for 15 years, and rebuilt it in the wake of the Great Recession.

“I did talk to private equity people, and as much as … they tell you that nothing’s going to change, that’s not always the case. That risk just seemed to be too great to take, and that’s why we decided to go the employee stock ownership route,” Marinelli told the Valley News.