Island Employee Cooperative is a 70-employee worker cooperative on Deer Isle in Maine. The cooperative includes three retail stores selling groceries, hardware, variety goods, and gas. The retiring owners decided to consolidate their three enterprises and sell to employees in order to maintain jobs on the island, and ensure that goods and services remained available to residents. At the time of transition the new business was the largest worker cooperative in Maine.
State: Maine
Industry: Grocery
Number of employees: 70
Became employee owned: 2014
Assistance: Cooperative Development Institute (CDI)
Financing: Cooperative Fund of New England (CFNE)
From the company
Learn more
- Island Advantages – IEC celebrates five years of employee ownership (2019)
- WABI – Worker-Owned Business Thriving in Stonington (video) (2018)
- Co-opLaw.org – Legal Case Study: Island Employee Cooperative (2017)
- Project Equity – Island Employee Cooperative (2017)
- Yes – As Boomers Retire, Mom-and-Pop Businesses Convert to Co-ops to Save Jobs (2016)
- Federal Reserve Bank of Boston – Retail Co-op: Maine Islanders Band Together to Preserve a Way of Life (2015)
- National Development Council – Creative Financing: Island Employee Cooperative (2015)
- Island Institute – Going coop mployee ownership sustains business legacy (2015)
- CDI – Island Community in Maine Creates Worker-Owned Cooperative to Retain Local Businesses and Jobs (2014)
- Pacific Standard – Buying Out Your Boss: Worker Cooperatives Are The Future Of Small Business (2014)
- Yes – Workers in Maine Buy Out Their Jobs, Set an Example for the Nation (2014)
- Nationswell – When These Maine Businesses Went Up for Sale, Their Employees Said ‘We’ll Buy’ (2014)
- Democracy Collaborative – Small Island, Big Cooperative (2014)
- Provider Power – It Takes an Island: How An Island Employee Cooperative Was Born (2014)
- WABI – Maine’s Largest Worker Co-op Up and Running in Stonington (video)
- Bangor Daily News – Stonington employees buy 3 stores, creating largest worker co-op in Maine (video) (2014)
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