"Evergreen has lost $308 million since its founding.... and shift the rest of its manufacturing process elsewhere"
Yeah, they are moving to China.
And the state then gave them another $5 million.
I think that's where they got the bonus.
"Struggling Evergreen rewards CEO; Payout wasn’t tied to financial goals, solar firm says" by Todd Wallack, Globe Staff | March 12, 2010
The chief executive of Evergreen Solar Inc. received a nearly half-million dollar bonus for 2009, a year in which the company struggled with mounting losses and announced plans to shift work from its new, state-subsidized factory in Devens to China.
The Marlborough company said chief executive Richard Feldt earned a bonus of $479,991 — 96 percent of his target amount — for meeting a number of goals, most of which were not related to the company’s financial performance. Instead, he received the bonus mostly for meeting operational targets, such as increasing output at the Devens plant and lowering the company’s production costs.
How is that not related to financial performance?
One of the goals Feldt met was to finalize a “subcontract arrangement in China,’’ the deal that will allow the firm to outsource jobs from Devens. The contract was signed in May with Jiawei Solar Co. in Wuhan, China. In November, the company said it would stop assembling solar panels in Devens and move the work to China in order to compete with other solar manufacturers. The outsourcing could potentially eliminate 150 to 200 jobs in Massachusetts starting in mid-2011.
Yeah, the BONUS was for the DEAL with CHINA, Massachusetts suckers!!!!
The company plans to continue making a key component — silicon wafers and solar cells — in Devens. Evergreen has about 700 full-time workers and 257 temporary employees in Devens and Marlborough. The China contract, however, was responsible for only a small portion of Feldt’s overall bonus.
Says who? The company and newspaper?
Then, yeah, that's why he got the bonus.
The decision to shift work to China has been controversial because Evergreen received $58 million in state loans, grants, and other aid to build the Devens plant.
Actually, it was $76 million, but who is counting, right, Globe?
What's DISAPPOINTING is it is the SAME REPORTER that wrote both articles!
MassDevelopment, a quasi-public agency, recently voted to give the company an additional $5 million loan, despite Evergreen’s deteriorating financial condition.
A MassDevelopment spokeswoman said the loan has not yet closed. But (another nickel) state officials have said that Evergreen has so far exceeded the target number of jobs it had promised to create in Massachusetts.
State trying to save face?
Evergreen declined to comment on the bonus. The chairman of the company’s compensation committee, Peter W. Cowden, could not be reached yesterday for comment. But (another MSM nickel in the cup) a trade industry spokesman noted that solar companies have been under intense pressure to control costs.
“If a firm is not able to outsource portions of their work or develop other strategic partnerships, they won’t be in business at all,’’ said Brian R. Gilmore, executive vice president for public affairs at the Associated Industries of Massachusetts.
I don't know; these guys have lost millions over decades and they are.... moving to China.
Feldt and Evergreen’s executive team did get a portion of their bonus for hitting one financial metric — improving the company’s operating cash flow. Overall financially, though, the company struggled. While revenues nearly tripled, Evergreen was nonetheless brutalized by falling prices and mounting competition and ended the year with an operating loss of about $98 million....
And what is a half-a-million bonus anyway!?
One executive compensation specialist, David Wise, said it was unusual that Evergreen weighted so much of the bonus toward operational statistics, such as the cost of producing solar panels, rather than financial performance. Evergreen based just 20 percent of Feldt’s bonus on financial performance, compared with 50 percent or more common in most executive plans, Wise said....
I view it as a STEALING SCHEME!
Overall, Feldt, who has been chief executive since 2003, received roughly $1.8 million in compensation last year, up 11 percent from 2008....
But they are doing better!!
"Evergreen says revenue was $78.5m" by Associated Press | April 20, 2010
MARLBOROUGH — Evergreen Solar Inc. said yesterday that its first-quarter revenue was about $78.5 million, higher than analysts expected and 44 percent above its revenue a year earlier. The company, which makes solar-power products using silicon wafers, did not forecast its profit. In the same period a year earlier, the company lost $64.3 million, and analysts were expecting it to report an adjusted loss of nearly $19 million for the quarter that ended April 3....
But they had bonus money to spare!
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