Three times a year, the 600-or-so employees of Friesens Corp. gather in front of the printing house to accept envelopes, each one holding a cheque for the workers’ share of company profits.
They all get a cut because they’re all owners.
The company based in the small town of Altona, Man. is set up as an employee ownership trust, which, just like it sounds, is a way to set up ownership of a business for the benefit of employees.
It’s also a way for a business owner to cash out without having to sell to a competitoror private equity, and it’smuch more likely in Canada after the federal government passed new rules and incentives for it in June.
The option has added importance because about three-quarters of small business owners plan to exit their company over the next decade, according to a Canadian …