Employee Owned Beers

Employee-owned breweries are typically breweries that participate in an ESOP, or an Employee Stock Ownership Program. These plans are a great way for owners to sell their stake in the company to their employees, while still retaining a sense of independence.

Usually, these are set up through a trust owned by the ESOP that immediately purchases the owner’s shares (often through the use of bank loans), and then distributes them to employees as they become eligible for the program. When an employee leaves, the ESOP trust buys back the shares from the employee, and the employee can keep the profits.

If a company wants to buy an employee-owned company, the ESOP trust acts as a shareholder in any other business and the employees will vote on whether or not to allow the sale. This is what happened when New Belgium Brewing, which was owned by an ESOP, was purchased by Kirin. If the ESOP trust owns an outright majority of the stock of the company, they have the final say, but not every employee-owned company is 100% owned by its employees.