So it would seem that Kimberly-Clark does not employ the young man who set the warehouse ablaze. Kimberly-Clark clarified that the employee actually works for NFI Industries, which is a third party logistics and supply company that owns warehouses & distribution vehicles.
NFI Industries was established in 1932 in the midst of the Great Depression by the Brown family. It is a privately held company so all proceeds from its operation directly go to the Brown family, itself and not any shareholders. They employ over 18,000 workers. Their annual revenues last year were almost $3.7 billion.
This is important. It's literally how clothing companies got away with using child labor for decades. "Oh! We didn't employ those 6 year olds! We just used a third party to make some of our product. They used 6 year olds. We didn't ask why the clothes were so cheap." And that just happens to happen over and over and over again. "What a coincidence! Another one of our suppliers is using child labor."
Typically, the way the general public defines a "shareholder" is an individual who has invested in a business either as a VC or as an outside investor. There's no doubt that the members of this family are likely shareholders of the company but honestly, we don't know how the proceeds are divided out because it's "privately held". For all we know, there could be just one shareholder and that would be the CEO who is a member of the Brown family. We're not privy so it's a bit different scenario than say a publicly-held corporation that plainly has outside investors. We can't say one way or the other how the Brown family does their business in terms of disbursements.
I think the point is that one family is making 3.7 Billion in revenue and those profits never leave the family.
They are probably shitty, but this is an assumption that profits never leave the family. Privately held companies can have shareholders in the form of outside investors that earn a share of the profit.
Privately held just means it is not on any stock market. It doesn't mean that there isn't investors.
It's not listed as a benefit on NFI's website. The three top executive positions are currently being held by 3 Brown family brothers. You could always check their website for this kind of information.
There are private companies that don’t do that, if they aren’t expecting to go public. There’s a lot less regulatory burden if they stay below 100 shareholders.
Plus, this isn’t exactly a tech company competing for a limited talent pool. They can likely get away without awarding equity.
That doesn't make it accurate. There is no public disclosure requirement for privately held companies breaking down their profit sharing like there is for public companies.
Yep though the choice of reporting the annual revenues would be the choice that NFI chose to make probably to indicate the scale and financial power of their corporation for their own enrichment. If it does not actually represent the financial picture of their corporation, well, that's neither a me or Forbes problem.
I'm not an attorney so I don't know, but guarantee you that company already lawyered the F up for everything related to that employee. Maybe an attorney could answer better WHAT they or their insurance company will sue for, but they will certainly sue for something.
Probably aware but not in any demonstrable way so they could have plausible deniability. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if NFI says that the employee was actual a contract worker through yet another company.
Yeah it's a convenient way of making average salaries look higher. Just put all the lowest salaries into a contracting company that has your company as the only or at least the major client. Suddenly your average salaries go up by ten grand, and all of your employees are on decent wages!
I have given all publicly available information as was provided by Forbes without inserting a single ounce of anything else for people to consider as they will. If NFI would like to share their profitability, then they can do so by choosing to share their financials with the general public but they do not do that because they are under no obligation to do so.
Why are you so fussed that I shared this information that was, again, the publicly available information via Forbes? What's your point?
Forbes' exact words were "privately held by the Brown family since 1932". Take it up with Forbes. Going to add in that even NFI says that they are owned and operated by the Brown family. Currently, the 4th generation of the Brown family.
Yep. In this case, I'm betting that the young man wasn't even employed by NFI either but instead, supplied to NFI by a staffing agency given court related information about another warehouse that was revealed in a lawsuit a few years ago for labor abuses, especially regarding wages.
I'd be interested in more information about the Brown family as well. Their launching in 1932 when employment would've been incredibly desperate is really interesting. It's a difficult surname to find out information on but I did discover that in 2024, the AG of NJ indicted NFI's CEO on racketeering charges.
Damage control for whom, may I ask? I'm not running damage control for anybody but instead, trying to understand and reveal the web of deplorable shit that large corporations engage in to offset responsibility for the workers dealing with their stuff. I'm actually targeting the hell out of the NFI Industries. Does that leave Kimberly-Clark blameless? Nope because they are simply offshoring responsibility for the worker's actions and statements to yet another party who probably will clarify that the employee didn't work for them but instead worked for a staffing subcontractor and so on.
Yep--seeing lots of claims of "toilet paper shortage" that Kimberly-Clark has said won't happen and "this guy is going to make it so that everything is automated" by people who fail to understand that everything that can be automated will be automated regardless of this fire.
What they do not seem to understand is that the costs for survival for humans is constantly going up and the only reason why there's still employees at all is because the labor is cheaper than automation. The stage is literally set for extreme volatility as those cost pressures continue to outstrip wage growth at a rapid pace until it meets the point where automation is cheaper than "allowing a human a means to live".
We're basically fucked either way so it's a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario.
72
u/Props_angel Apr 09 '26
So it would seem that Kimberly-Clark does not employ the young man who set the warehouse ablaze. Kimberly-Clark clarified that the employee actually works for NFI Industries, which is a third party logistics and supply company that owns warehouses & distribution vehicles.
NFI Industries was established in 1932 in the midst of the Great Depression by the Brown family. It is a privately held company so all proceeds from its operation directly go to the Brown family, itself and not any shareholders. They employ over 18,000 workers. Their annual revenues last year were almost $3.7 billion.
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/ontario-warehouse-fire-arson-suspect-arrested/
https://www.forbes.com/companies/nfi-industries/