[Staff Note: I’m a big fan of America’s budding Microbrew industry. It’s based around small, local companies who strive to provide the best product they can. Many of them, like New Belgium, go above and beyond to take care of their employees. These companies are creating local jobs to produce a local product, often times buying locally produced grains to make their beer. The best part about it is the success these businesses are seeing. Even in a recession, people (like me) are more than happy to spend more, sometimes double, the money compared to a national brand, because we know we are getting a superior product that was crafted with pride and stimulates the local economy.]
New Belgium Brewing is excited to announce that the company’s Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP) has purchased the balance of company shares, making it 100% employee-owned. New Belgium, brewer of a wide variety of award-winning beers including Fat Tire Amber Ale, has been a partial ESOP since 2000 with a controlling interest held by co-founder Kim Jordan and her family. This transition will put the company on a path to control their destiny into the foreseeable future.
