Odell Brewing moves to employee ownership

Each employee of Odell Brewing Company became a part owner of the 800 Lincoln Ave. brewery on Monday.

Doug, Wynne and Corkie Odell had owned the brewery since its inception in 1989. The three sold 19 percent of brewery stock to a newly-formed employee stock option plan, in which all 115 workers participate. The stock will change in value as the company grows.

Wynne Odell will continue as chief executive officer, Corkie Odell will remain head of human resources and Doug Odell will continue as founder, a title he’s held for about five years.

A majority of the company’s stock has been sold to the Odells’ executive team, including Eric Smith, director of sales and marketing; Brendan McGivney, chief operating officer; and Chris Banks, chief financial officer. They have been with Odell for a collective 52 years. The Odells will retain 10 percent each as a family legacy, Wynne Odell said in an interview.

The employee stock option plan, the most common form of employee-ownership of a business, is a retirement plan often used to divide the shares of departing business owners into a trust and then among employee accounts, relative to employee salary. Employees can access their stock when they leave the company or retire.

“Everyone has to transition out at some point,” Wynne Odell said. “We were dithering about what was the most effective way to accomplish what was most important to us . . . it took a long time to get all the pieces together to make sure it worked” for the family, the company and the employees.

The Odells were clear about what they wanted as their legacy: continuation of the brewery’s cultural fabric, its financial stability and its independent control.

“The craft beer industry is changing dramatically and we have seen several of our friends and neighbors selling their companies, in whole or part, to major brewers and private equity firms,” Doug Odell said in a statement. “While these options are more lucrative than the one we chose, we believe that the people who built OBC are the best ones to lead us successfully into the future.”

The transition has been in the works for several months, and the company was celebrating Monday afternoon.

“It was very emotional,” Wynne Odell said. “We are super excited, all our co-workers, co-owners now, seem to be really excited. Things are flying at the brewery, things are going full force and to add this on top is super sweet.”

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Odell, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2014, grew from modest beginnings in Doug and Wynne Odell’s Seattle kitchen to Fort Collins, where they joined Doug’s sister, Corkie, in opening the first craft brewery in the city. But it never aspired to be more than a regional brewery committed to its employees, its beer and its community, Wynne Odell said in an interview celebrating the company’s silver anniversary.

“We want to continue on the trajectory we're on,” she said. “We want to continue to invest in our people and the quality of our beer.”

Odell is the second longstanding Fort Collins-based brewery to become employee owned.

Two years ago, New Belgium Brewing Co. fully adopted an employee stock ownership plan. In 2000, New Belgium put 42 percent in an ESOP trust but in 2013 made the decision to sell 100 percent of the company to its employees.

In December, CB&Potts, owned by Washington-based RAM Restaurants and Breweries, announced it had moved to employee ownership, selling to 2,000 employees, or about 65 percent of the company’s workforce.