King Arthur Baking Shares Its
Success with Congress as an
Employee-Owned Business

Dear Fellow Vermonter,

One of the beautiful things about representing the great state of Vermont is that we have some of the best employee-owned companies in the country and I am very proud of that fact.

I have met with employee-owned companies in Vermont year after year — and never in my life have I seen employees who take more pride in the work that they do — from senior executives and managers all the way down to the cashier and store clerk.

This week, I invited one of those companies — the King Arthur Baking Company, headquartered in Norwich, Vermont — to come to Capitol Hill to testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee about their good work.  

King Arthur is not only a very successful baking company, that now sells their flour and other products in grocery stores across the US. What makes this company so special is that it is directly owned by its employees, not some multi-billionaire on Wall Street. 

At our hearing in Washington, King Arthur’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Brock Barton, described what it means to not just be an employee, but to be an employer. In the hearing, he shared the example of a warehouse employee who — in celebrating her retirement after more than 25 years with the company — said, “Someone like me doesn’t have a retirement account like this.” She now doesn't have to worry about retirement because, as an owner, the company’s success is also her success.

Brock shared what it means, as a CFO, to speak directly to their members about hard times. He described a meeting in 2022, after pandemic baking had declined, when the company wasn’t quite as profitable as it had been. Brock went on to describe how meaningful it was to be able to look the employee-owners in the eye and tell the truth and for them, in turn, to move quickly from what this news meant to what they could do to change things.

At a time when the gap between the very rich and everyone else in our country is growing wider and wider; when millions of Americans are falling further and further behind; when corporate America has outsourced millions of decent paying jobs overseas; and when the economy continues to struggle to create jobs that pay a livable wage with good benefits, we need to expand economic models that broadly benefit the middle class in Vermont and around the country.

When employees own their own companies, when they work for themselves, when they are involved in the decision-making process that impacts their jobs, they are no longer just punching a time clock. Workers who have a direct ownership stake in the companies they work for become more motivated, absenteeism goes down, worker productivity goes up and people stay on the job for a longer period of time.

Further, employee-owned businesses boost morale because workers share in future profits and have greater control over their work-life.

That is why I have introduced legislation in the Senate to provide the financial assistance workers need to own their own businesses through Employee Stock Ownership Plans or worker-owned cooperatives. 

A lot of workers around this country would like to own their own companies, but they cannot get the capital they need, and they do not have the technical expertise. This legislation will enable them to do just that.

I am proud of Vermont’s strong history as a leader in employee-owned companies and it is my sincere hope that we can continue to build on that success here in Vermont and around the country.

Thank you to King Arthur Baking for helping to tell this story in Washington this week, which you can watch here in full. 

If you want to learn more about worker ownership in Vermont, and how you can take part, visit the Vermont Employee Ownership Center at www.veoc.org or call 802-338-7448. 

Sincerely,