After nearly three decades of unflinching liberalism and steadfastly refusing to compromise their values, New Belgium Brewery totally sold out to the Japanese bringing their employee-owned venture to a profitable end.
For the actual owners.
Co-founder Kim Jordan said in a letter that New Belgium would remain a B Corp with Lion’s blessing, but lose its employee-owned status. Workers with stakes still need to approve the deal, but stand to be rewarded.
“More than 300 employees are receiving over $100,000 of retirement money with some receiving significantly greater amounts,” Jordan wrote.
So why are they selling out? Surely the boycotts that PeakNation has led over the years didn’t lead to the company’s downfall?
According to the brewers reasoning, they found it difficult to raise capital because it would require them to compromise “a lot about what makes New Belgium great: environmental sustainability and a rich internal culture,” Jordan said.
So instead of selling out all of their values for capital, they traded their environmental street cred for cold hard cash in the form of a final sale.
To Japan.
Can we get a round of applause for capitalism?
