Presentation Title

Succession Planning – Selling Your Store to Your Employees

Presenter Information

Daniel Wallace, Coastal Enterprises, Inc.
Mark Sprackland, Independent Retailers Shared Services Cooperative
Vern Seile, Former Owner of the Two Grocery Stores
Rob Brown, Cooperative Development Institute

Keywords

Models of grocery store ownership, Financing store operations, Succession planning, Business Planning

Description

In 2013, 45 employees of two isolated, rural independent grocery stores in Maine formed a worker cooperative with the express purpose of purchasing the stores from the retiring owner. Over a period of many months, the Island Employee Cooperative incorporated, signed a purchase and sale agreement, developed a business plan, secured financing, and purchased the stores that many had been working in all of their lives. This elegant transition model maintains local ownership and empowers a dedicated workforce while providing competitive advantage and increasing community support.

Learn about the core team that formed to support this transaction, the process and challenges to making it happen, the motivations of both buyers and seller, and the details of the financing package. We also briefly discuss food access and local foods as they factored into this process.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.