ESOP
What is an ESOP?
NewAge Industries, Inc., the parent company of the AdvantaPure, NewAge Performance Products and Verigenics brand is an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) organization. This means team members who meet the eligibility requirements participate in the Employee Stock Ownership Plan, a retirement benefit that provides team members with a true stake in the organization’s success. Unlike privately or publicly held companies the ESOP offers multiple benefits to the team that translate into a value-added benefit for our industry partners
According to National Center for Employee Ownership, as of 2022, the U.S. has approximately 6,548 ESOPs, covering over 14.9 million participants, and holding more than $1.8 trillion in assets. ESOP participants have significantly higher retirement balances than the national average, and ESOPs contribute to positive business outcomes, including increased sales and employment growth.
Our Journey to Become and ESOP
In January of 2006, the ESOP was established when Ken Baker, sole proprietor of NewAge Industries, Inc., sold 30% of the company to the trust to ensure the company’s continuation with its mission and culture remaining intact. The ESOP added a new facet to the company’s operation with everyone committing to its success, for the first time as employee-owners.
In 2019 NewAge Industries, Inc. became a 100% employee-owned Employee Stock Ownership (ESAP) company. The vision was to keep the formerly sole proprietorship, and the values thereof intact and to remain privately held for the next 100 years.
ESOP Value to Industry Partners
For our Employee-Owners, the ESOP imbues pride of ownership and cultivates a mindset of commitment and excellence as we strive to meet each industry partner’s requirements in the most innovative and productive way possible.
Being an organization that is 100% employee owned drives a culture of accountability, pride, and shared vision of success. Team members see their investment in the company as an investment in their future. This culture drives performance, quality, safety, and top-level customer service.
The ESOP promotes long-term commitment, cultivating a workforce that is both highly skilled and deeply knowledgeable in serving our partners. Our team members don’t just treat the business like their own – they are owners!
B-Corp and Benefits Corporation – We Are Both
NewAge Industries, Inc. (NAI), parent company of the AdvantaPure and NewAge Performance Products (NAPP) family of products and services is a B Corporation (B Corp) as certified by the non-profit B Labs. In conjunction with the B Corp Certification, NAI became a Benefits Corporation, which is a legally recognized type of for-profit business entity that includes a social or environmental mission in its corporate purpose.
About Our B-Corporation (B Corp)
NAI has been a Certified B Corp since September 2000.
B Corp Certification is a designation that a business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials.
Certified B Corporations are legally required to consider the impact of their decisions on all of their stakeholders – a model known as stakeholder governance. The B Corp legal framework allows companies to protect their mission and ensures that the company will continue to practice stakeholder governance even after capital raises and leadership changes. The legal framework also provides more flexibility when evaluating potential sale and liquidity options. The legal requirement ensures that B Corps remain legally accountable to all their stakeholders – workers, communities, customers, suppliers, and the environment – not just shareholders.
B Corp Certification is holistic, not exclusively focused on a single social or environmental issue, and the process to achieve and maintain certification is rigorous and requires engaging teams and departments across a company. Taking company size and profile into account, verification involves documentation of your company’s business model and information about your operations, structure, and various work processes, as well as review of potential public complaints and possible site visits.
B Corp Certification is a designation that a business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials. To achieve certification, a company must:
- Demonstrate high social and environmental performance by achieving a B Impact Assessment score of 80 or above and passing our risk review. Multinational corporations must also meet baseline requirement standards.
- Make a legal commitment by changing their corporate governance structure to be accountable to all stakeholders, not just shareholders, and achieve benefit corporation status if available in their jurisdiction.
- Exhibit transparency by allowing information about their performance measured against B Lab’s standards to be publicly available on their B Corp profile on B Lab’s website.
About Our Benefits Corporation
Benefits Corporation status protects a company mission through financial and leadership changes and opting out of shareholder primacy, much like that of a public company’s structure and choosing stakeholder governance. Actively selecting stakeholder governance means a company is required to consider anyone that’s affected by that company’s decision-making, like workers, customers, local communities, wider society and the environment.
Becoming a Benefits Corporation as an ESOP emphasizes commitment to a high standard of purpose, accountability and transparency, and allows the company to demonstrate a commitment to more than just profit, by considering the impact of decisions on stakeholders.
To learn more about certified B Corporations visit https://usca.bcorporation.net