As we mark 20 years in business at Phoenix Feeds and Nutrition and our continuous effort to grow and innovate, our employee ownership program stands out as a significant milestone.
Employee-owned companies like Phoenix often have cultures that encourage employees to “think and act like owners,” making operations more productive, faster-growing, and more profitable.
We chatted with Chief Financial Officer Shannon Danyow about how our employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) began, how it has grown, and its impact on our business.
How did the program get started?
The ESOP was started in 2017 as a part-exit strategy for the majority owner, Craig Newton. We also started it to attract employees who want to come and stay here long-term. Once you work for Phoenix for over a year, you automatically become a participant, meaning you’re a part-owner of the company. Essentially, it’s a retirement plan for employees at no cost to them. Currently, 27 percent of the company is owned by employees.
How does it work?
The way it works is that the company goes through a valuation process every year by a third party and then participants receive dollars in their retirement plan, their ESOP plan, based on how successful and how profitable the company is every year. It’s like when you leave your house and turn the lights off so you don’t have to pay for extra electricity. We’re trying to find efficiencies and have employees more invested in what they’re doing every day. The more successful Phoenix is, the more money they have in their retirement account at the end of the year.
How does it impact the culture at Phoenix?
Last year, we started an ESOP communication committee that brings together employees from different departments that work together to spread the word about the company as a positive member of the community that we live and work in. That has brought people together to work more cohesively.
So, when we do things outside of the ground that Phoenix sits on, our hope is that people will work better together to make things more efficient here at Phoenix, which makes things better for our farms, which makes your retirement account grow. Overall we’re trying to create an ownership culture here. Again, we hope people can work better together and come up with ideas for their supervisors and management on what we can do to make things more efficient.
What has the positive impact been on the company?
We’re all striving for efficiencies and profitability and the success of Phoenix is in part because we have great customer service and we take care of our farms.
We need to be successful with our quality, with our deliveries, with our ordering, so the entire company needs to work together to make this company great and what it is, and we hope every person will take pride and ownership in what they’re doing every day.
What’s next?
What it means for the future is there’s a strong possibility that as the owners work toward their exit strategy, the business could become more employee-owned, possibly 100 percent employee-owned. That means we’re looking for leaders in this company.
We’re looking for people to come in and get promotions, work hard, and be the future of this company as the owners and the founders start to move on. We hope that attracts people to come here if they want to start with the company, grow with the company, and be part of its success in the future.
Learn more about Phoenix or explore current job postings.
