135 lines
5.6 KiB
Markdown
135 lines
5.6 KiB
Markdown
---
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created_at: '2012-11-26T12:00:08.000Z'
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title: On 81st birthday, Oregon man gives company to employees (2010)
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url: http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2011111010_birthdaygift18.html
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author: cfontes
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points: 260
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story_text: ''
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comment_text:
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num_comments: 58
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story_id:
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story_title:
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story_url:
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parent_id:
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created_at_i: 1353931208
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_tags:
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- story
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- author_cfontes
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- story_4831615
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objectID: '4831615'
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year: 2010
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---
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Originally published February 17, 2010 at 6:43 PM | Page modified
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November 26, 2012 at 6:04 PM
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Scores of employees gathered to help Bob Moore celebrate his 81st
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birthday this week at the company that bears his name, Bob's Red Mill...
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MILWAUKIE, Ore. — Scores of employees gathered to help Bob Moore
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celebrate his 81st birthday this week at the company that bears his
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name, Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods.
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Moore, whose mutual love of healthful eating and old-world technologies
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spawned an internationally distributed line of products, responded with
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a gift of his own — the whole company. The Employee Stock Ownership Plan
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that Moore unveiled means that his 209 employees now own the place and
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its 400 offerings of stone-ground flours, cereals and bread mixes.
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"This is Bob taking care of us," said Lori Sobelson, who helps run the
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business' retail operation. "He expects a lot out of us, but really
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gives us the world in return."
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Moore declined to say how much he thinks the company is worth. In 2004,
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however, one business publication estimated that year's revenue at more
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than $24 million. A company news release issued this week stated that
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Bob's Red Mill has chalked up an annual growth rate of between 20
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percent and 30 percent every year since.
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"In some ways I had a choice," Moore said of what he could have done
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with the company he founded with his wife, Charlee, in 1978. "But in my
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heart, I didn't. These people are far too good at their jobs for me to
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just sell it."
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It's not that the offers aren't there. Hardly a day goes by that Nancy
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Garner, Moore's executive assistant, doesn't field a call or letter from
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someone wanting to buy the privately held company or take it public.
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"I had four messages waiting when I returned from a recent vacation,"
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she said. "Three of them were buyout offers." Garner said she and other
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employees are floored by Moore's plan, under which any worker with at
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least three years tenure is now fully vested.
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"We're still learning all of the details," Garner said, "but it's very
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humbling to be part of a company that cares this much about its
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employees."
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An employee stock-ownership plan, or ESOP, is a retirement plan in which
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the company contributes its stock to the plan to be held in trust for
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the benefit of its employees. The stock is never bought or held
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directly.
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Vested employees are sent annual reports detailing their respective
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stakes in the company. When those employees quit or retire, they receive
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in cash whatever amount they — and the company, through increased
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revenues, new sales and controlled costs — are due.
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"Eventual payouts could be substantial," said John Wagner, the company's
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chief financial officer and, along with Moore, one of four partners.
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Moore said he began thinking about succession about nine years ago. He'd
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heard about employee-stock-option programs and got much more serious
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about the idea three years ago.
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That Moore has now pulled off what few other company owners would even
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dream about comes as no surprise to longtime acquaintances, such as
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Glenn Dahl, owner of NatureBake bakery in Milwaukie.
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"Bob's a force of nature," said Dahl, whose family's Gresham-area bakery
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was Moore's first wholesale customer in the 1970s. "He's always been
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that way. He gets an idea and just makes sure it happens, one way or the
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other."
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Moore's own background is in electrical and mechanical engineering, but
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he fell in love with the mechanics of stone grinding in the 1960s after
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reading about old stone-grinding flour mills.
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At about the same time, Charlee began sharing with him her delvings into
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the nutritional benefits of eating whole-grain foods. The couple put
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their passions to work by starting, with their three sons, their first
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milling operation in Redding, Calif.
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In 1978, the couple moved to Portland to retire. Moore's idea at the
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time, reflecting his long-held sense of spirituality, was to learn the
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Bible in its original languages. A chance walk past a closed mill site
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near Oregon City changed everything.
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"I call it my emotional epiphany," Moore said. "Whatever excuse I care
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to give, I was just sucked into it like a vortex."
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A 1988 arson destroyed the mill, when Moore was 60. Undeterred, he
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rebuilt the operation, moved once because of space needs and now
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occupies a 15-acre production facility and a two-acre headquarters and
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retail outlet along Oregon 224 in Milwaukie.
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Three production shifts, running six days a week, turn out a line of
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goods distributed throughout North America, Asia and the Middle East.
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The company earned an extra splash of international recognition when a
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team traveled to Scotland and, apparently feeling its oats, won the
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world's porridge-making championship.
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Employees are just now grasping the meaning of Moore's birthday gift.
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"It just shows how much faith and trust Bob has in us," said Bo Thomas,
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the company's maintenance superintendent, who has put his four children
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through college during his two decades there. "For all of us, it's more
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than just a job. Obviously, it's the same way for Bob, too."
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For Moore, meanwhile, nothing about the new arrangement will change a
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thing. He plans to do for the foreseeable future what he has done every
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day for decades.
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"I may have given them the company," he said, chuckling, "but the boss
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part is still mine."
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