MORE than 500 factory workers have become instant six-figure bonus recipients after their boss refused to sell his company unless staff shared in the windfall.
Graham Walker, the outgoing CEO of Fibrebond, secured $240 million in bonuses for 540 full-time employees when he sold the family-founded manufacturing firm for $1.7 billion.
Walker told prospective buyers he would only agree to a sale if 15 per cent of the proceeds were set aside for workers, adding the condition was non-negotiable because employees did not own company stock.
Without it, he argued, staff who had kept the business alive through decades of turmoil would walk out.
Executives at power management company Eaton ultimately agreed.
Beginning in June, Fibrebond workers started receiving payouts averaging $443,000 each, spread over five years.
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Long-time employees at the Louisiana firm received even more.
When the envelopes arrived, reactions ranged from disbelief to tears.
Hector Moreno, a Fibrebond business development executive, said: “It was surreal, it was like telling people they won the lottery. There was absolute shock. They said, ‘What’s the catch?’”
For Lesia Key, a 29-year veteran who started at the factory in 1995 earning $5.35 an hour, the moment was overwhelming.
The 51-year-old used her bonus to pay off her mortgage and open a clothing boutique.
She said: “Before, we were going paycheck to paycheck. I can live now.”
Moreno used his payout to take his entire extended family to Cancun, Mexico.
Other workers paid off credit cards, bought cars outright, funded college tuition or boosted retirement savings.
Longtime assistant manager Hong ‘TT’ Blackwell, 67, used several hundred thousand dollars to retire after more than 15 years in Fibrebond’s logistics operation.
She said: “Now I don’t have to worry. My retirement is nice and peaceful.”
The cash surge rippled through Minden, a town of about 12,000 people, where Fibrebond is a major employer.
Mayor Nick Cox said: “There’s a lot of buzz about the amount of money being spent.”
Walker added supporting the town was a major reason for the bonuses, noting years of job losses and businesses moving to Texas.
“It seems sometimes progress evades us,” he explained.
“We don’t often see good things here.”
Fibrebond was founded in 1982 by Walker’s father, Claud Walker, with a dozen employees building shelters for electrical and telecommunications equipment.
The company boomed in the 1990s, nearly collapsed after a factory fire in 1998, and was battered again by the dot-com bust that slashed its customer base to just three clients.
Even then, the Walkers kept paying employees and later set up funds to help workers struggling to cover bills during years of frozen wages.
The turnaround came after a risky $150 million pivot into modular power enclosures for data centres.
The move paid off as cloud computing, artificial intelligence and liquefied natural gas exports drove demand.
Sales surged 400 percent over five years, attracting buyers, all of whom were told the same thing.
Walker is now stepping down as CEO on December 31, and his main goal is simple: “I hope I’m 80 years old and get an email about how it’s impacted someone.”