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If you’ve read more than one issue or two of this newsletter, you are familiar with the evidence that employee-owned companies are, on average, better employers and have higher rates of retention and net job creation.

There is a lot of understandable concern about just how much it has cost companies, trustees, and insurance companies to defend and pay settlements or judgments in ESOP cases. While it is not possible to account for all of the costs, we can look at the total amount that was ordered to be paid out or was agreed to be paid out.

Recently, ESOP-owned StoneAge was the victim of a ransomware attack. Its ownership culture helped steer it through a very difficult time, as an article in Forbes detailed.

The courts and the Department of Labor (DOL) have made it very clear that boards of directors in ESOP companies have a duty to monitor how the ESOP trustee oversees the valuation process and to make sure that the plan is not paying more than fair market value to outside sellers and not less than

Periodically, we will reprint and revise popular articles from prior issues. This one was written in 2008 by NCEO founder Corey Rosen and is updated by him here.

On November 19, 2019, it was announced that New Belgium Brewing, the fourth largest craft brewery in the United States and the first craft brewery in the country to become an ESOP, would be acquired by Lion Little World Beverages, a subsidiary of Japan’s Kirin Holdings.

ChillCo, Inc. is a 100% employee-owned large tonnage refrigeration company based in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. It provides sales, service, remanufacturing, parts, equipment retrofit, design build/consulting, and rental of all makes and models of equipment in the refrigeration space. 

One of the best ways to onboard and retain new employees is to pair them with another employee as they get comfortable in the new job.

Although we may not feel it in the air, the holiday season is quickly approaching. Before the rush of preparation overcomes us, I’d like to take a moment to look back at the year so far and thank our members and supporters for making it a great one.

Imagine a workplace where leaders and supervisors receive predominantly good news. During weekly meetings between teams and their project managers, reports indicate that all work and projects seem to be going as planned and there are no issues with clients or customers.