Mainebiz

V I E W P O I N T S W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 3 M AY 2 , 2 0 1 6 Featured @ Mainebiz.biz Get Maine's business news daily at mainebiz.biz and on Twitter (@Mainebiz). Below is some of the best from our online-only offerings: For a daily digest of Maine's top busi- ness news, sign up for the Mainebiz Daily Report at mainebiz.biz/enews Renewable energy giant SunEdison files for Chapter 11 SunEdison Inc., which owns six wind farms in Maine worth $900 million, has two more massive wind farm proposals for Maine — a 600-megawatt King Pine wind farm eyed for Aroostook and Penobscot counties and a 86-megawatt Somerset Wind farm that would be near Moosehead Lake. Find out how the company came to filing bankruptcy at mainebiz.biz/sunbankruptcy Bowdoin vice president departs for Jackson Lab post Bowdoin Vice President and Treasurer S. Catherine "Katy" Longley will leave her post in June to become vice presi- dent and chief financial officer at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor. Find out more about Longley's impact on Bowdoin during her 14 years at the college at mainebiz.biz/longley The end of the line for brick manufacturing in Brewer Brooks Brick Co. closed after 110 years in business — putting an end to the once-thriving industry of brick man- ufacturing in a city that was once home to 18 yards that produced 11 million bricks each year. Find out more about the legacy of the construction material in Brewer at mainebiz.biz/bricks From the Editor S uccession issues are a constant topic of conversation in Maine. With baby boomers looking to retire and/ or bank some equity from their businesses, there are a lot of "for sale" signs on businesses. ESOPs have the advantage of tax deferment and, in some cases, fi nancing from an interested party, the owner. Employees have a greater stake in the success of the busi- ness. For the wider community, local ownership keeps companies based in Maine. In this issue, Senior Writer Lori Valigra met with the founder of Johnny's Selected Seeds, Rob Johnston Jr. Johnston started the company with $500 in 1973, at age 22. In 2005 an ESOP was put in place and, by 2012, employ- ees owned the entire company. Today, Johnny's has 210 employees, including seasonal workers, and annual sales of $40 million. is is only a small, but intriguing aspect of Lori's story, which is a good read. In recent months, Mainebiz has written a number of stories about companies selling to employees through an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP. In January, Kennebec Technologies owner Charles "Wick" Johnson started the ESOP process, selling his Augusta business to his 65 employees. An ESOP was a way to keep the company locally based. "I conferred with our board. I did not want to sell the company [outright]. Local ownership goes away. Company after company has confronted that," Johnson told Mainebiz at the time. GAC Chemical Corp. in Searsport made the plunge in 2015, follow- ing the lead of Moody's Collison Centers, with eight Portland-area locations; Sebago Technics in South Portland, Cianbro in Pittsfi eld, Prock Marine in Rockland, Allen Insurance in Camden, Sargent Corp. in Stillwater, SteelPro Inc. in Rockland. As of this writing, VIA Agency in Portland was in the process of making the transition to an ESOP. An upcoming discussion devoted to ESOPs Looking ahead, Mainebiz will off er what I think will be a timely and compelling event. As part of our Mainebiz Executive Insights series, we will host a discussion on ESOPs on June 16, from 7:30 to 10:30 a.m., at Bowdoin College in Brunswick. Panelists will include David Colter, CEO of GAC Chemical Corp.; Susan Scherbel, founder of Bellview Associates, which has facilitated many of the ESOP conversions in Maine; and Mark Adams, president and CEO of Sebago Technics. Steve Tenney, senior vice president of wealth management at UBS, will moderate the discussion. Peter Van Allen pvanallen@mainebiz.biz With ESOP, business owner and employees can both bene t bernsteinshur.com CELEBRATING 1OO YEARS Be ready. BE SHUR. When you need outside legal counsel that feels like par t of your team. ESOPs have the advantage of ESOPs have the advantage of ESOPs have the advantage of ESOPs have the advantage of ESOPs have the advantage of ESOPs have the advantage of ESOPs have the advantage of ESOPs have the advantage of ESOPs have the advantage of ESOPs have the advantage of ESOPs have the advantage of ESOPs have the advantage of ESOPs have the advantage of ESOPs have the advantage of tax deferment and, in some tax deferment and, in some tax deferment and, in some tax deferment and, in some tax deferment and, in some tax deferment and, in some tax deferment and, in some tax deferment and, in some tax deferment and, in some tax deferment and, in some tax deferment and, in some tax deferment and, in some tax deferment and, in some cases, financing from an interested party, the owner. Employees have a greater stake in the success of the business. For the wider community, local ownership keeps companies based in Maine.

• Cover