Not long ago, Natalie Reitman-White was at a national conference on employee ownership, listening to two of her idols on stage — Full Sail Brewery’s Irene Firmat, and New Belgium Brewery’s Kim Jordan.
“I thought how amazing is this, two female CEO co-founders running beer companies, totally committed to employee-ownership culture and sustainability,” Reitman-White says.
But both of those companies are no longer employee-owned. A private equity firm acquired Full Sail in 2015, and New Belgium just recently announced it accepted an offer to be acquired by a multinational craft brewing company.
Source: Why Employee Ownership Wasn’t Good Enough for This Organic Food Company