Brighten Your Day

Grateful supermarket owner sells business to his employees

December 3, 2012

Joe Leuken decided to sell his grocery store chains to his employees, giving 400 people part ownership of Lueken's Village Foods. All 3 supermarkets, two located in Minnesota and one in South Dakota, will be transferring the ownership with the Employee Stock Ownership Program.

Although Leuken has received multiple offers to make more money for his supermarkets, Leuken wanted to give back to the ones who helped his success.

"My employees are largely responsible for any success I've had, and they deserve to get some of the benefits of that," Lueken said earlier this week. "You can't always take. You also have to give back."

Lueken's Village Foods employees are more than happy about Leuken's decision. Now they will have something they can call their own, and it will make working much more rewarding.

The employees do not even have to pay for their shares. The samount of shares each employee receives is based on their length of empoyment.

Now that Leuken will have plenty of time on his hands, he plans to travel the world with his wife.

Full story here