NewAge(R) Industries Observes 15 Years of Employee Ownership
It’s been fifteen years since plastic tubing manufacturer NewAge Industries took one of its first major steps to becoming employee owned. NewAge’s ESOP – Employee Stock Ownership Plan – is designed to provide incentives for employees to work with a primary focus on the customer and to reward long-term employees at retirement.
- Philadelphia, PA-NJ (1888PressRelease) January 13, 2021 - In January 2006, NewAge Industries’ owners signed paperwork that sold thirty percent of the plastic tubing manufacturer to its employees. The ceremony was a notable step in the company’s journey to employee ownership.
Now, fifteen years later, NewAge is one-hundred percent employee owned. The company’s ESOP – Employee Stock Ownership Plan – rewards long term employees at retirement and has allowed several to retire earlier than originally planned. The ESOP encourages employees’ commitment to NewAge Industries; employees know and understand how their actions and work ethic affect not only their customers but their coworkers, their families and their futures.
That commitment was tested in 2020 like no year before and involved team leaders and team members from Sales, Engineering, Marketing and other departments assisting in Manufacturing and with other critical tasks. The groups worked together, learning new assignments and adjusting work hours, with one thing in mind: customers.
Ken Baker, the company’s CEO and former majority owner, noted that over the years, he’d had hundreds of offers to sell NewAge to competitors and businesses with complimentary product lines.
“What’s the easiest way to squash your competition or to expand your product offering? Buy another company. But I didn’t want to take the money that was being offered and walk away from the business my father started in 1954,” said Baker. “NewAge has been part of my life almost as far back as I can remember. My father and I and my family put a lot of hours and sweat equity into growing NewAge. And there are people who’ve worked here for 20, 25, 30 years. I wanted to reward them in a meaningful way for their hard work, dedication and loyalty.”
NewAge became a 100%-employee-owned company in September 2019 when the final portion of company stock was sold to the ESOP.
“Employee ownership is new for most of the people who come to work here,” noted Baker. “Every new team member attends classes to learn what an ESOP is, how ours works, the difference between stock and cash accounts, and how money from the ESOP is distributed to retirees. We want everyone to understand how this system works and how it puts into place a succession plan for NewAge and our AdvantaPure(R), BrewSavor(R) and Verigenics(R) brands.”
Since the plan’s inception in 2006, the privately-held company’s share price has appreciated 975%.
“It’s certainly something to be celebrated. You don’t get returns like that in the stock market,” observed Baker.
Learn more about NewAge’s road to employee ownership at http://www.newageindustries.com/esop.asp and about employment opportunities at http://www.newageindustries.com/employ.asp. The company’s Fluid Transfer Specialists(R) may also be contacted by phone: 800-506-3924 or 215-526-2300; e-mail: info ( @ ) newageindustries dot com; fax 800-837-1856 or 215-526-2190; or at 145 James Way, Southampton, PA 18966 dot
About NewAge Industries
In business since 1954, NewAge Industries manufactures plastic and rubber tubing in reinforced and unreinforced styles. The company maintains a large inventory of tubing and fittings for its core product lines, provides custom extrusion and fabrication capabilities, and services customers worldwide. In 2006, NewAge initiated an ESOP and became 100% employee-owned in 2019 for the benefit of both its employees and customers. NewAge is a solar powered, zero landfill organization committed to continually minimizing its environmental impact.
The AdvantaPure division of NewAge Industries is ISO 9001:2015 certified and specializes in high purity tubing, hose, Single-Use process tubing manifolds, AdvantaFlex(R) TPE tubing, BioClosure(R) container closure systems, and other molded components for the pharmaceutical, biopharm, biomedical, food, beverage and chemical industries. Products are manufactured, stored and shipped using methods that ensure product purity. Automated product identification systems, including gamma stable RFID tags and labels, are offered by NewAge’s Verigenics division. BrewSavor by NewAge Industries provides tubing and hose for craft beer, homebrew and beverage dispensing applications.
AdvantaFlex(R), BioClosure(R), BrewSavor(R), NewAge(R), NewAge Industries AdvantaPure(R), Verigenics(R), and “Fluid Transfer Specialists(R)” are registered trademarks of NewAge(R) Industries, Inc.
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