Summary
We the Owners: Employees Expanding the American Dream, is a 2012 documentary film about three American businesses that have embraced various forms of employee ownership. This case study offers a closer look at New Belgium Brewing, one of the three companies featured in the film, published to coincide with the release of the film’s updated second edition. New Belgium Brewing is an American craft brewery based in Fort Collins, Colorado that was founded in 1991 by the then husband-and-wife team of Kim Jordan and Jeff Lebesch. The company first established an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) in 2000 and was 100% employee-owned from 2012 to 2019. In this case study, the author explores developments at New Belgium since the original release of We the Owners in 2012, most notably its sale to an outside buyer and the end of the brewery’s era of employee ownership.
Find discussion questions in the “We the Owners Discussion Guide”
View “We the Owners” here: https://smlr.rutgers.edu/we-the-owners.