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You’ve stumbled across a spinoff newsletter of The Stakehold, our newsletter for the ownership economy. This is a deeper cut on employee ownership than we include in our free weekly newsletter.
If you’re an employee ownership junkie and you want it all shot straight into your inbox once we launch, you can toggle on emails for Ownership at Work here:
If you haven’t already, you should start with the Top Shelf News in our main newsletter. Below is the rest!
🗞️ The News
Employee Ownership
🇬🇧 I-COM, a marketing agency and employee ownership trust, is building a UK employee ownership map
🇫🇷 France considers new policy (Pacte Papin) designed to incentivize employee ownership with reduced taxes and registration duties
21 Hats announces its 2027 workshop series, designed to give business owners access to founders with a wide range of succession experiences and employee ownership models
Durham, NC officially joins DAWI’s Employee Ownership Cities program with the launch of their Keep It Durham-Owned initiative (ht Steve Storkan)
ESOPs
Rutgers Institute researchers find that full-time workers without 4-year degrees but in ESOP jobs earn 15% more each year than their counterparts in non-ESOP jobs (ht Adria Scharf)
Stout reports ESOPs generated an 18.1% return in 2025, compared with 16.4% for the S&P 500—and that performance gap widens over a 5-year time horizon
Expanding ESOPs features its newest member, Christensen Group Insurance
Ulteig, a consulting engineering firm and 100% ESOP, adds employee ownership expertise to its board with Susan Conner
Congrats to OwnersEdge as 2026 Waukesha County Large Business of the Year
An NCEO task force report calls on the Department of Labor to factor repurchase obligations into upcoming valuation rules to protect long-term ESOP sustainability
Employee Ownership Trusts
ICYMI: According to EOT Advisors, recently converted employee ownership trusts include environmental services firm Heumann Environmental (IN), software company Katapult Engineering (PA), Allied Foundation Repair (TX), DCW Cost Management (WA), logistics firm Marshall Fine Arts (NY) , and consulting firm SEI (NV)
NCEO releases four new case studies in their EOT Toolkit, featuring Ocaquatics Swim School, Guidon, ShopBot Tools and Mainscape (members-only)
Worker Cooperatives
ICYMI: The ICA Group looks far and wide for all the worker co-ops on LinkedIn
Two national organizations rebrand to clearer, simpler names: NCBA CLUSA will be U.S. Co-ops and Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada is now Canada Co-op
Cincinnati’s Topia Coffee Copperative rebrands as Radical Bean Cooperative, restructuring the business to reconnect with the community
🎙️ ICA Group’s LevelUp Coops announces new podcast premiere on Sep 30
Oct 1 Deadline: Apply for Cooperative Education Fund grants of $1,000-10,000
Congratulations to ICA Global Board President Dr. Ariel Guarco and the 15 new At-Large Directors — including U.S. Co-Ops’ Doug O’Brien
The Fund for International Cooperative Development invites global co-ops to apply for grants for crisis response, rebuilding or long-term co-op development
Cooperative Development Fund released their quarterly updates, including upcoming events, their 2025 Annual Report, and a new 5-year strategy plan
Cooperative Fund of the Northeast announces newest Co-op Navigator Fellows
The Stories
Paramount Plastics, a 100% employee owned manufacturing ESOP under Empowered Ventures, achieves one year without any OSHA injuries
EV launches their Season 5 podcast by spotlighting their 5 companies
NCEO spotlights how employee ownership completely changed how Jaime Garcia and his wife thought about retirement
Grassroots Economic Organizing (GEO) profiles an employee-owned newsroom, a bakery worker co-op and more in their latest newsletter
🎙️ Construction ESOP Collective interviews Harkins Builders’ Ben Nichols
🎙️ Counterpoint: Kevin Donnelly shares the story of selling his telecoms company to private equity with the 21 Hats podcast:
Research & Insights
Project Equity shares their Annual Report, including data on company resilience and national initiatives to scale employee ownership
🇬🇧 The eoa launches a new series of employee ownership guides for businesses
🎙️ ESOP Exit Podcast breaks down Section 1042 and its tax benefits
U.S. Co-Ops pilot tests new Learning Hub tools for coffee co-ops in Adjuntas, PR
Cooperatives Europe releases From Aid to Ownership: The Cooperative Approach to International Development while the International Cooperative Alliance and UN COPAC publish 17 briefs on cooperatives and sustainable development goals
🇨🇦 Lucie Moncion and Andrew Pakes argue for employee ownership to be core to Canada’s economy, noting the challenge is one of scale rather than public support
Starting Oct 7: Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center announces The The People’s Economy Academy
Rutgers proposes innovative structures for licensed professionals seeking more broad-based equity for staff
✌️ See you next week!
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