Covered Bridge Cookies

Year Founded: 1993
Employee-Owned Since: 2023 (Worker Cooperative)
Location: Windsor
Employees: 3 worker owners + 2 employees
Line of Business: Bakery
Website: www.coveredbridgecookies.com

In the basement of the old firehouse on Main St. in Windsor, Vermont, a worker-owned cookie-baking cooperative is carrying on a legacy of local artisanal baking. Covered Bridge Cookies, cherished by locals since Carl Goulet started baking butter, flour, and chocolate into cookies to sell at the Windsor farmer’s market in summer of 1993, now offers the same cookies that Vermonters and tourists alike have come to love, but under a new form of ownership, a worker cooperative.

In a couple of ways, this was far from the most likely outcome after Carl decided he was done baking cookies. Fewer and fewer small business owners are finding their family members willing to take over the family business when they’re ready to retire, so Covered Bridge Cookies is in the minority of businesses that are able to pursue that path. Even more unlikely, Carl’s son Christopher Goulet teamed up with Shannon Smith and Colin Moon, who both knew the business well, and the three decided to take on its ownership together by converting it to a worker cooperative. In late winter of 2023,  the new worker-owners announced the formation of the co-op and its purchase of Covered Bridge Cookies, marking the start of a new chapter for the business. 

Under the new ownership structure, the cooperative will serve to benefit both present and future employees. Unlike in a general partnership, a core feature of a worker co-op is the opportunity for new full-time employees to become eligible for ownership after an initial period of working for the business. Employees that pursue this opportunity pay a fixed price for a share in the cooperative and are then entitled to a share in profits and an equal say in key decisions.