Gardener’s Supply, the Burlington, Vermont-based garden products retailer, became 100 percent employee-owned as of Monday. Founder and majority owner Will Raap began selling shares to employees through an Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP) in 1987. An ESOP allows all employees to earn stock and share in company profits.
Selling Gardener’s Supply to the employees keeps the business in Vermont, and gives employees the opportunity to become owners of a business they helped build, something Will Raap felt was critical when he started the company in 1983.
“I’m delighted the work we started 27 years ago will continue. Our founding mission statement was to ‘spread the joys and rewards of gardening’, said Raap. “Gardening is even more relevant today than it was when we started.”
Although the company could have sold to outside buyers, Raap’s original vision was to create a business where people, planet and profits are equally important. At a time when many jobs are moving overseas or companies are being sold to large conglomerates, employee-ownership reaffirms Gardener's Supply's commitment to Vermont and its employees. Four of the eight original founding employees are still with the company.
Jim Feinson, president of Gardener’s Supply, states, “This is a very exciting time for all of us and what Will Raap has accomplished is incredible. He has entrusted us to carry on his vision of a successful business, a compassionate corporate culture and commitment to making the world a better place through gardening.”
“Will’s impact in Vermont goes beyond Gardener’s Supply. He has created a legacy right here in our own backyard where he founded the Intervale Center. What was once a landfill, is now 400 acres of organic farms and a national model for sustainable agriculture,” continued Feinson. Feinson is an avid gardener and has been with the company since 1988.
Since first starting the ESOP program in 1987, Gardener’s Supply has been at the forefront of the employee-ownership movement. Chief Operating Officer Cindy Turcot has been leading these efforts. Turcot has a 27-year history with the company and is primarily responsible for initiating the company’s open-book management style and profit-sharing program. She is a nationally-known expert on ESOP culture and was the first Board president of the Vermont Employee Ownership Center.
The company has won several awards for its innovative management style and exclusive, patented products. Recently, Gardener’s Supply was recently named as one of the “Best Places to Work in Vermont” for 2009. This annual list of the “Best Places to Work in Vermont” was created by Vermont Business Magazine, the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, the Vermont Department of Labor, the Vermont Department of Economic Development, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) - Vermont State Council, and Best Companies Group. The company has been recognized nationally for its contribution to gardening by a number of different organizations including the American Horticultural Society, Plant A Row for the Hungry, Mailorder Gardening Green Thumb Award, Garden Writers Association, National Garden Clubs of American, to name a few.
GARDENER’S SUPPLY
Gardener’s Supply serves gardeners locally at two garden centers, in Williston and Burlington’s Intervale and nationally as an online and garden products cataloger. In 2009, Gardener's Supply helped drive the surge in vegetable gardening by participating in a campaign to initiate the Obama’s White House Garden; providing patented and exclusive vegetable gardening gear through its catalog and retail stores; and introducing a new online garden design tool, the Kitchen Garden Planner. The company donations to community gardeners, Master Gardeners and garden clubs across the United States has also helped to establish Gardener's Supply as an industry leader. In 2009, the company donated 1,200 pounds in fresh produce to the Burlington Food Shelf in an employee-wide ‘Grow What You Eat’ program.
Through the company’s donations program, Gardener’s Supply has distributed more than $1 million in cash and products to local and national non-profit organizations. The company has also undertaken a number of steps to minimize their carbon footprint and to encourage and provide earth-friendly gardening resources and products.
Gardener’s Supply actively promotes gardening as a way for people to make a difference in their own backyards, in their communities, and in the world at large. To learn more, please visit www.gardeners.com.
NEXT STEPS FOR RAAP
Will Raap will continue to be an ‘employee’ at Gardener’s Supply under the terms of the new ownership agreement. Raap’s interest and energy is focused on several new environmental restoration enterprises that he envisions being catalysts for the new ecological economy. He is helping to orchestrate the restoration of a 25,000 acre watershed in Costa Rica as well as initiating several new ventures here in Vermont such as The Earth Partners, Reforest Teak, Carbon Harvest Energy and Vermont Green Fund. To learn more, please visit the Founder’s Corner page at www.gardeners.com.
Source: Gardener's Supply. 12.21.2009
Founder Will Raap sells Gardener's Supply to employees
Submitted by tim
on