Avoiding Us vs. Them, Employee Recognition, and 460% Revenue Growth

Last year we discussed the Employee Engagement Practices of King Arthur Flour Co., an ESOP company and one of the 2008 Top Small Workplaces.



A Two-Century Commitment to Quality and Community reviews the success of King Arthur, noting that revenues have increased from $14.5 million when the ESOP was established in 1996 to over $67 million today:

In 1996 legacy owner Frank Sands felt like the company needed to make another big change. In a move to avoid the classic model of union-management relations in which a union must protect the workers against a management drive solely to maximize value to the owners, papers were drawn up to sell the 200-year-old company to its staff. Revenues at the time were $14.5 million.

"The classical model," explains Voigt, "does not include the workers. So when you have a model that is 100 percent owned by an ESOP, it isn't an 'us-them' situation."

It took until 2004 for the company to become completely bought up by its associates, but it's a move that has cemented success for the organization: Revenues jumped 124 percent from the start of the sale, to $32.5 million. After being named a Winning Workplaces/Wall Street Journal Top Small Workplace in 2008, King Arthur made this year's list of America's fastest-growing private companies in Inc. magazine, and has remained one of the fastest-growing companies in Vermont since going ESOP.

Accolades and sales growth have naturally translated to employee recognition – something the company takes pride in and does in a way that fits their culture. "Knighting" ceremonies honor long-term employees and "Vesting" ceremonies mark an employee's vested stake in the ESOP account. Even the stationery awarded for a job well done has the image of a knight on horseback and the stamp, "A message from an owner."

Travis Oman calls the Knighting ceremonies a "truly unique and terrific experience," and P.J. Hamel, a Senior Editor with 19 years tenure at the company, says such activities, though whimsical, are worthwhile.

"I love to see a colleague celebrated. The ceremonies themselves are touching, funny, and memorable," Hamel says. "Bottom line, they're an opportunity for us all to say thanks to one another."

…As Hamel puts it simply, "It reinforces our 200-plus-year history of doing the right thing." And doing the right thing has continued to pay handsomely: from 2004, when the sale of the company to its employees was completed, to today, revenues have increased over 100 percent to $67 million.