GORHAM, MAINE — O’Donal’s Nursery is always busy during the harvest season, but there has been an extra buzz this year. This season marks the garden center’s first as Maine’s newest worker-owned cooperative.

O’Donals is widely known and regarded by gardeners, homeowners, and landscapers throughout northern New England. Founded in 1953 by Royce and Selma O’Donal, Jeffrey O’Donal purchased the business from his parents in 2006. Last year, O’Donal announced he was ready to retire, but wanted to find a way to maintain the family-owned ethos in the transition.

Rather than selling to an out-of-state buyer or shuttering the business, O’Donal decided to keep things close to home. He reached out to the Cooperative Development Institute (CDI) to explore how he could sell the business directly to its most invested stakeholders: the employees. Nearly half of the O’Donals staff had been with the business for ten or more years, and this year twenty-two employees signed on to form a cooperative and purchase the nursery together. Working alongside O’Donal and CDI, they successfully completed the transition to a worker-owned cooperative this spring.

Jeffrey O’Donal speaks of his employees like family “O’Donal’s Nursery exists, first and foremost, because of the shared vision, work ethic, and sense of fairness embodied by my parents. Many current employees have been here long enough to have worked with my parents, and now me. I can’t talk about our success without celebrating them.” he said.  “Their efforts, as much as mine, made the company what it is. I look forward to all that they are going to accomplish.”

As individuals, O’Donals employees could not have afforded to buy the business, but forming a cooperative opened an ownership opportunity to all workers, regardless of their economic status or job title. Now that O’Donals is a worker-owned cooperative, employees will  own the company, make decisions about its future, and share the profits.

“Being an employee as well as an owner really changes the way I look at my responsibilities at the nursery,” says Nick Vacchiano, an employee-owner. “As an owner, I’m beginning to see how my hard work as an employee turns into profits for the business. This makes me want to do the best I can so the business and the people I care about succeed.”

Rob Brown, Director of Business Ownership Solutions at CDI, helped O’Donal and the workers establish a transition strategy and cooperative business plan. CDI also provided extensive financial, cooperative, and management training for new worker-owners to ensure ongoing success. “For many small business owners, selling to the workers is often the best option for maintaining the legacy they’ve built and rewarding the people who’ve helped them build it,” said Brown.  “The O’Donals family has built a great, highly respected business over two generations, and I’m confident that they have what it takes to be a successful worker-owned business.”

The purchase was facilitated with financing from the Cooperative Fund of New England (CFNE). “The O’Donals team had so many years of experience in management and in their respective departments, and they clearly completed a lot of hard work that made the loan decision process easier,” said Chris Linder of CFNE  “We were able to offer them a loan that took into consideration this experience, rather than treating them as a brand new business, as many other financial institutions would have viewed them.”

As a cooperative, worker-owners will together carry on the O’Donals legacy and continue providing the expertise and quality that local gardeners and landscapers have come to know and rely on. As Denise Tanguay, another new employee-owner, reflected, “We have been given a rare opportunity to lead the nursery into a bright future.”

For questions, please contact: 

Rob Brown, rbrown@cdi.coop,  207- 233-2987

Director of Business Ownership Solutions

Cooperative Development Institute

Nicholas Vacciano, info@odonals.com

Employee Owner, O’Donals Nursery