BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. -- Citing the success of its retail offering, its competitive positioning and recent tax reform, Stewart’s Shops Corp. said its employees are now receiving their profit-sharing statements with more than 20% growth on their existing accounts.
“This success is from the service our great partners provide, our broader foodservice, the value of being a retailer not significantly impacted by Amazon, and the changes in the federal corporate tax law,” the convenience-store retailer said in an update on its website.
This growth is in addition to the $11 million company contribution to the employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), equaling about 15% of the employees’ 2017 gross pay.
Stewart’s employees, which it calls “partners,” own almost 40% of the company through the ESOP, which is funded 100% by the company for anyone working at least 1,000 hours a year.
After six years in the plan, a partner’s balance is usually greater than a year’s pay, the company said.
There are nearly 1,000 partners with a balance of more than $100,000, and 67 with a balance of more than $1 million. Nearly a third of these millionaires started out as hourly employees, and more than a third are still actively working vs. retired. This is possible because of Stewart’s stability, enabling years of double-digit percent-of-pay contributions, plus double-digit appreciation of balances each year, it said.
“We are very pleased to make this investment in our partners and have an average of six ESOP members per shop,” Stewart’s Shops President Gary Dake said. “They give a shop it’s special ‘flavor’ and build a relationship with our customers to help make their lives easier. We are doing this when so many other retailers are trying to automate their employees out of contact with their customers by replacing them with electronic ordering, self-checkout, etc.”
Stewart’s ESOP participants also receive paid maternity leave, half-priced YMCA fitness and day care memberships, as well as the “Make Your Own” scholarships program, which provides $300,000 per year of scholarships to employees’ dependents.
Founded in 1945, Stewart’s Shops is an employee and family-owned c-store chain based in Ballston Spa, N.Y. Its 336 Stewart’s Shops in 31 counties across upstate New York and southern Vermont offer milk, ice cream, coffee, food to go, gasoline and other convenience items. The retailer is No. 27 on CSP's 2017 Top 202 ranking of c-stores by number of company-operated locations.
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