Owner and Boss of Multi-Million Dollar Company Gives it to His Employees

Aimee Herd : Feb 23, 2010
Diane Sawyer – ABC News

"…a lot of companies are passed on within the family. That's how I think about it; it's just part of the family. I have employees right now that have been with me for thirty years. They were committed to staying with me, and now, the most logical thing is that they are going to own the company."

Bob Moore, owner of Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods company in Portland, Oregon, had a very special gift for his 200 employees last week. He gave them the company.

It was the company Bob had built from scratch on his own, with his own money. According to the ABC News report, the gift was worth "hundreds of thousands of dollars for each employee—including the janitors." (Photo: ABC News)

Moore, who had "lost it all" once, decided that in this country, a company really belongs to its workers who make it possible. Now, he was turning that concept into reality.

"Here's what I know about America. It's probably the only place I know where I can have the opportunity of being in business, making mistakes, failing, then succeeding," Bob Moore told ABC News. "You know really, when you think about it, a lot of companies are passed on within the family. That's how I think about it; it's just part of the family. I have employees right now that have been with me for thirty years. They were committed to staying with me, and now, the most logical thing is that they are going to own the company.

"It's the only business decision that I could make—I could not sell the company. I don't think there's anybody worthy to run this company but the people who built it. There's a lot of negative stuff going into business today, but there's a good old basic Bible lesson and that is that the love of money is the root of all evil. Unfortunately our entire philosophy today—to get all the money you can, in whatever way you can—has caused people to do things just for money that they feel in their hearts is not the right thing to do. I truly, truly tried to put some of that aside and tried to do what was the best thing for this group of people who made this all possible."

"America, I guess, is sort of an experiment, but it's one of the most wonderful experiments that man has ever taken on," added Moore. "…this is part of that—to brighten up the day for a few people. This should be the good part of America."

Watch the ABC News video report at the link provided.