Bi-Mart want to sell out to employees

The owners of the Bi-Mart discount chain, which has 64 stores and 2,300 workers in Oregon, Washington and Montana, is hoping to sell the Eugene-based operation to its employees.

The company announced recently it may open a retail outlet employing about 50 in Anaconda, Mont.

By the Associated Press

http://www.mtstandard.com/articles/2004/01/24/newsanaconda/hjjfjihfjbjggg.txt

In the next month, the employees will get a chance to use part of their 401(k) retirement savings to buy stock in the company from the present owners, who include 135 company executives and a Portland investment firm, Endeavour Capital.

Major shareholder and Chief Executive Marty Smith said the firm has annual sales of more than $620 million.

Smith and other stockholders bought the chain seven years ago. Since then the chain has grown despite competition from Wal-Mart and other big-box chains.

Smith said the sale would keep the headquarters in the area and that most of the current shareholder-employees hope to keep working for Bi-Mart after it is sold.

He declined to disclose many financial details and would not say what price the current owners are asking or what the profit might be.

It was not clear Thursday whether employees favor the idea. Some contacted at the Thurston store in Springfield said they were interested and that they believed Bi-Mart would continue to grow.

Thurston clerk Penny Cash said she will use some of her retirement savings that she has accumulated at Bi-Mart for seven years to buy company stock.

‘‘I think we are just going to expand even more,” she said.

The employees would use part of their retirement plan savings as a down payment but would also have to line up a loan to pay the balance.

In subsequent years, employees could allocate the employer contribution portion of their retirement to pay down the loan and thereby acquire more shares in the firm.

In essence, the ownership stake becomes part of the employees’ retirement savings.

Bi-Mart executives will explain the offer to employees in coming days. By mid February, employees will have decided, Smith said.

If enough agree, ownership could be transferred by the end of that month, he said.

Smith would remain CEO for the next few years, and other top executives would also remain, eventually giving way to younger management.

The membership discount chain was founded in Yakima, Wash., in 1955 and moved headquarters to Eugene in 1967.

Bi-Mart has many longtime employees, Smith said, who ‘‘treat the company like they own it, whether they do or not. Now we have the opportunity to let them share in that situation.”