NewAge Industries installs rooftop solar-energy system

At NewAge Industries, what goes on under the roof has been the priority at the plastic-tubing manufacturer for 57 years.

On Wednesday, all attention will be on the roof itself.

There, a one-megawatt solar system consisting of 4,082 panels - a monster in terms of rooftop photovoltaic arrays and believed to be the biggest of its kind in Bucks County - will be the toast of local and state dignitaries, green-business advocates, and NewAge's 100 employees.

For a plant that uses two megawatts of power a year to churn out tubing with widespread applicability - from pharmaceutical laboratories to McDonald's milk-shake machines - the solar project represents a serious cost-savings opportunity. The Southampton factory's annual energy bill is about $300,000, said Ken Baker, NewAge's chief executive and son of its late founder, Raymond Baker.

Yet the $4.2 million rooftop addition - half of which is being financed with state and federal subsidies - is just the latest chapter in NewAge's story of not only surviving, but being set up to thrive long after any Bakers are interested in being at its helm.

And Ken Baker is the catalyst, "a great idea man," said Ann Phy, a 21-year NewAge employee who started as a secretary and is now the company's marketing coordinator. "He's always looking ahead, looking to the future."

In 2006, Baker turned over 30 percent of the company, which had $29 million in sales last year, to the workers as part of an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). NewAge employees do not have to buy their shares, currently valued at $160 - they are part of a retirement package that includes a pension and a 401(k) plan.

"I knew that if I didn't give ownership, I wouldn't be able to get the company to where I wanted it to be, meaning you have committed team members treating this like more than a job," Baker said of his decision to share NewAge's ownership with the entire workforce.

It was a decision he came to 13 years before implementing it. First, he worked on reducing $11 million in debt that resulted from buying out his brother Gordon 15 years ago and his father five years after that, as well as the purchase in 2000 of the 240,000-square-foot building NewAge now occupies alongside the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Before that, the company - which started as a distributor and moved to manufacturing in 1992 - had been located in Warminster and Willow Grove.