Employee Ownership Blog

Corey Rosen

January 30, 2024

What If Amazon Shared Ownership the Way Sears Did?

For those of a certain age (like me), Sears was the Amazon of its day. You could get almost anything but food in a Sears catalogue, and its stores were ubiquitous. My first house in the San Francisco Bay area was built in 1906 with plans from Sears. Early in his life my dad sold shoes for Sears. Back then, Sears put in 10% of pay into a profit-sharing plan that owned Sears stock. Contributions were based on years of service. If a salesman worked for Sears for decades, they could walk away with what would be worth over $1 million today. My dad didn’t stay long, but he sometimes mused about what might have happened. Sears ended the plan in the 1970’s, although it briefly had an ESOP in the 1980s as it was trying to find its way back in a changing retail landscape.

Corey Rosen

January 16, 2024

Oxfam Report Recommends Support for Employee Ownership

Oxfam, a nonprofit focusing on hunger and other poverty-rated issues, issued a report that includes a number of recommendations, one of which is “providing financial support to employee-owned businesses, including worker cooperatives. This includes the implementation of ILO [International Labour Organization] Recommendation no.193 on promoting cooperatives and relevant regional instruments.” That recommendation, which is specific to cooperatives, "provides non-binding guidelines in drafting and/or revising national policy and legislation."

Loren Rodgers

January 02, 2024

NCEO Board Election Opens January 3

The election for the NCEO’s board of directors opens on January 3 for three-year terms that begin on April 1, 2024. NCEO members in good standing will receive an email on January 3 with the subject line "Invitation to the ballot for the NCEO board elections," which will include a link to a confidential electronic ballot. Directors will be selected through this election and by appointment by the existing board. Balloting will end on January 19.

Corey Rosen

December 21, 2023

Court Says Plan Remedies Must Be Exhausted Before Lawsuit Can Be Filed

In a potentially important ruling, a district court has dismissed a case against the defendants at Inland Fresh Seafood Company because the plaintiffs did not first exhaust the administrative remedies for complaints provided by the plan. In Bolton v. Inland Fresh Seafood Employee Stock Ownership Plan, No. 1:22-cv-04602-AT (N.D. Ga. Dec. 5, 2023), the plaintiffs contended that a 2016 $92 million sale to the ESOP was overpriced. The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants (including the independent trustee) and sellers to the ESOP (all of whom were executives of the company) and the executives each were acting as fiduciaries. The suit alleged the executives had already received multiple bids for the company at lower prices. The plaintiffs alleged that management provided the appraiser with highly unrealistic projections about significant increases in revenues and profits, which they alleged were accepted to provide a higher than fair value. The plaintiffs said the defendants sought multiple valuations for the stock and accepted the highest one.

Evelyn Castro

December 20, 2023

Is an ESOP Right for You? Dallas, Texas–Speakers Announced!

Explore the Empowering Potential of ESOPs

We're thrilled to announce our highly anticipated 1.5-day seminar Is an ESOP Right for You? in Dallas, TX, from February 5-6, 2024. This event will provide entrepreneurs, business owners, and HR professionals with comprehensive insights into ESOP transaction structures, plan design, financing, and more in response to the expanding ESOP landscape.

Corey Rosen

December 15, 2023

Colorado Biz Names Kerry Siggins CEO of the Year

Kerry Siggins, the CEO of Durango, Colorado-based StoneAge, was named CEO of the year by Colorado Biz. Siggins was the co-keynote speaker at our Kansas City annual conference this year. StoneAge is a 100% ESOP-owned water-blasting tool manufacturer in Durango, Colorado. Siggins became the CEO three years after being hired as director of operations when she was just 28 years old. She has led the company through significant growth, including two recent acquisitions. The company now has 200 employees. Siggins is the author of the recently published The Ownership Mindset: A Handbook for Transforming Your Life and Leadership, which covers her journey from substance abuse to recovery to getting an engineering degree and becoming a CEO. She also serves on Colorado Governor Jared Polis’s Employee Ownership Commission.

Loren Rodgers

December 15, 2023

Succession Planning Beyond the CEO

When it comes to replacing the chief executive, every company knows it needs to make a plan, even if it doesn't have one yet. But what about succession planning for other key leaders and roles? More than one cohort of the NCEO’s CEO network dug into this topic last month. Rather than try to cover succession planning comprehensively, this blog post shares some of the thought-provoking ideas from those discussions.

Timothy Garbinsky

December 14, 2023

UK's John Lewis Partnership May Reduce Employee Ownership Percentage

Retailer and department chain the John Lewis Partnership is mulling a reduction of its employee ownership percentage. The company, currently 100% employee-owned via a perpetual trust (the UK's version of an employee ownership trust, or EOT), is considering the reduction to raise between 1 and 2 million pounds of investment capital. The plan, as it stands, would sell a minority stake, allowing the company to retain its status as the UK's largest majority employee-owned company.

Corey Rosen

December 11, 2023

DOL Delays ESOP Valuation Regulations to March 2024

The Department of Labor (DOL) announced that it now expects to release its proposed regulations on ESOP valuation in March 2024. The DOL previously stated that it expected to issue the proposed regulations by the end of 2023. The WORK Act, part of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, requires the DOL to issue valuation regulations for ESOPs. The announcement does not specify a date in March, and it is not binding -- the proposed rules could be released before or after March.

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