It is widely acknowledged that employee-owned Publix Super Markets is one of the better run chains in the grocery business. Much of the credit, management has long maintained, goes to workers who feel as though they have a real stake in the company.
Now, a group of those same workers is claiming management has failed to help them realize the full value of their stakes. The group, Publix Employee Shareholders United, has put forth its own slate of write-in candidates for the company board and wants the company to pursue an initial public offering (IPO) to "allow employees to access the value of their ownership stake."
The group claims that the value of shares held by employees, roughly 85 percent of total shares, is limited by the fact that Publix is a private company.
According to a release put out by Publix Employee Shareholders United, "The board, primarily comprised of the descendants of George Jenkins who founded the company in 1930 and who own less than 15 percent of the company's stock, has resisted taking actions that would allow shareholders to monetize their ownership in the company."
A request made to Publix for comment was not answered at the time this story was published.
[Editor's Note] Many outside the company also credit employee-ownership for the success Publix has enjoyed. Eight-six percent of respondents in a RetailWire poll in September 2010 said employee-owners were "much more" or "somewhat more" productive than workers at company where they did not have a stake.