Obran Cooperative Conversions
Secure your legacy with a sale to Obran
Obran Cooperative is excited to work with you to build a better economy. We want to ensure that your business, the employees who depend on it, and the communities that thrive because of it continue to grow and prosper for years to come. We're not venture capitalists looking for a quick score, and we’re not a private equity firm looking to buy the company only to loot it. When we acquire a company, we’re in for the long-term. We’re here to work with you to strengthen your company through shared ownership as you make the transition to retirement or pursue other goals. With Obran, you can feel assured that the business you’ve worked so hard to build will continue to thrive under the ownership of your employees for the foreseeable future.
Our Process
Step 1
Outline objectives with an Obran representative
First, you’ll talk with an Obran representative to help us understand your business, determine a reasonable sale price, and ascertain where we can add value to the business.
The sale price will be determined by a variety of criteria, but ultimately Obran's goal is to broker a transaction that will leave all parties feeling like they've gotten a lot of value. We’ll look for ways each of our businesses can work together with yours to share strengths and bolster weaknesses, adding to and benefitting from every new addition. We’ll also look at the strength and quality of the current management team and our ability to foster a culture of participatory management within it.
Step 2
See if we are a good fit
Once we have a good understanding of your company and where it would fit in, we’ll work with you to examine the internal structure of the deal and external factors affecting its success. These include the market conditions, identifiable growth patterns, our ability to be additive, and our ability to move into that space.
We also need to educate the employees of the business on their potential powers, rights, and responsibilities as employee-owners of Obran and gauge their interest in participating in our cooperative.
Step 3
Structure the transaction
Given the sale price we came to over the course of the last two steps, we’ll determine how we can structure the transaction to align with both parties' objectives. At the end of the day, we want a deal structure that allows for both future growth of your business as well as an investment for the cooperative in the long term. With that figured out, we will draft a letter of intent that outlines the deal structure and the terms of the sale.
Step 4
Access financing
We work with a range of equity and debt providers, but we primarily use non-extractive debt financing through our partners at Seed Commons. Using this financing method, the employees of your company are able to see a clear finish-line when the business will be fully worker-owned under Obran.
However, we will access financing to suit the needs of the transaction we structured. It all depends on the needs of your business.
Step 5
Complete the transfer
We will come up with a deal narrative based on the letter of intent so that you completely understand what needs to happen when. This will include documents like purchase agreements and model board resolutions to help this transition go as smoothly as possible.
Step 6
Transition to employee ownership
This transition is a gradual process that takes education, time, and commitment from leadership. Our strength is that we can incubate this model of ownership under our holding cooperative structure. To complete the transfer effectively, we will hold information sessions, workshops, and meetings to fully inform and empower employees to become full members of Obran. It might surprise you the engagement and enthusiasm your employees might have as the transition takes hold. They’ll become more engaged and enthusiastic because they realize the value of their time more.
If you're interested in transitioning your business to employee ownership, reach out to us and we’ll find a time to talk about how we can work together. We know that selling your business can be a life-changing event that's tied up with emotion. As small-business owners, we understand that and are excited to offer this unique strategy for selling your business on your terms.
