Sullivan Tire owners turning company over to employees to “keep the culture”

By KEN MACLEOD

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    NORWELL, Massachusetts (WBZ) — The next time you pull into Sullivan Tire, you’ll talk to the boss. You’ll have no choice. That’s because Sullivan Tire will soon be one of the largest employee-owned firms in New England.

The lug nuts seem to tighten a little easier these days. “We joke about it all the time in the shop, ‘oh we own the place now’, so it’s kind of funny,” said employee Ron McGerigle.

Funny, but awesome, for the roughly 1,500 workers at Sullivan Tire who learned a few days ago that the aging brothers who run the tire and auto repair chain had spurned big money in favor of an employee stock ownership plan that effectively hands the company to them.

“You know there is no trickery to this,” owner Paul Sullivan told WBZ-TV. “It’s more important for us to keep the culture.”

He means the “employees are family” mantra that patriarch Bob Sullivan launched with his first shop in Rockland, back in 1955, now an empire of more than 100 locations spread across five New England states. “I get emotional when I even think of him,” Sullivan said.

But the Sullivan boys thought of him a lot as corporate suits pitched buyout deals that would’ve let the brothers retire and abandon ship as zillionaires.

“We have enough money, we’re fine,” Sullivan said. “You can have too much believe me. That’s called greed.”

So, they orchestrated a stock deal for all employees who are with the company come the first of the year. They’ll fully vest after six years and can rollover or cash out the stock, depending on when they leave or retire. This is on top of their 401k.

“They care about our future, and their future as well at the same time and I think it’s a win-win for everybody,” said employee Rob Legros.

Indeed, the Sullivans believe this out-of-the-box commitment will encourage already good employees to work harder and stay longer, not to mention help recruit new workers in a tough environment. But it’s no swan song gesture say the Sullivans, it’s long-term team building.

“I have no doubt in my mind that somehow I’ll get word up there in the big sky that we’re doing just fine,” Sullivan said.

The current management team stays put. But over the next few decades, workers earn stock based on years of service and performance reviews.

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