Employee Retirement Plans

9 Months Ended

Sep. 26, 2020

Employee Retirement Plans [Abstract]

Employee Retirement Plans

Employee Retirement Plans

(a)Pension Plans

U.S. Plans:

The company maintains a non-contributory defined benefit plan for its union employees at the Elgin, Illinois facility. Benefits are determined based upon retirement age and years of service with the company. This defined benefit plan was frozen on April 30, 2002, and no further benefits accrue to the participants beyond this date. Plan participants will receive or continue to receive payments for benefits earned on or prior to April 30, 2002 upon reaching retirement age.

The company maintains a non-contributory defined benefit plan for its employees at the Smithville, Tennessee facility. Benefits are determined based upon retirement age and years of service with the company. This defined benefit plan was frozen on April 1, 2008, and no further benefits accrue to the participants beyond this date. Plan participants will receive or continue to receive payments for benefits earned on or prior to April 1, 2008 upon reaching retirement age.

The company also maintains a retirement benefit agreement with its former Chairman ("Chairman Plan"). The retirement benefits are based upon a percentage of the former Chairman’s final base salary.

Non-U.S. Plans:

The company maintains a defined benefit plan for its employees at the Wrexham, the United Kingdom facility. Benefits are determined based upon retirement age and years of service with the company. This defined benefit plan was frozen on April 30, 2010 prior to Middleby’s acquisition of the company. No further benefits accrue to the participants beyond this date. Plan participants will receive or continue to receive payments for benefits earned on or prior to April 30, 2010 upon reaching retirement age.

The company maintains several pension plans related to AGA and its subsidiaries (collectively, the "AGA Group"), the most significant being the Aga Rangemaster Group Pension Scheme in the United Kingdom. Membership in the plan on a defined benefit basis of pension provision was closed to new entrants in 2001.The plan became open to new entrants on a defined contribution basis of pension provision in 2002, but was generally closed to new entrants on this basis during 2014. 

The other, much smaller, defined benefit pension plans operating within the AGA Group cover employees in France and the United Kingdom. All pension plan assets are held in separate trust funds although the net defined benefit pension obligations are included in the company's consolidated balance sheet.

The following table summarizes the company's net periodic pension benefit related to the AGA Group pension plans (in thousands):

	Three Months Ended				Nine Months Ended
	Sep 26, 2020		Sep 28, 2019		Sep 26, 2020		Sep 28, 2019
Net Periodic Pension Benefit:
Service cost	$	649	$	593	$	1,918	$	1,839
Interest cost	6,456		7,995		19,086		24,776
Expected return on assets	(18,089)		(16,118)		(53,476)		(49,948)
Amortization of net loss (gain)	842		149		2,489		462
Amortization of prior service cost (credit)	642		614		1,897		1,904
Curtailment loss (gain)	—		185		—		573
	$	(9,500)	$	(6,582)	$	(28,086)	$	(20,394)

The pension costs for all other plans of the company were not material during the period. The service cost component is recognized within Selling, general and administrative expenses and the non-operating components of pension benefit are included within Net periodic pension benefit (other than service cost) in the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income.

(b)Defined Contribution Plans

The company maintains two separate defined contribution savings plans covering all employees in the United States. These two plans separately cover the union employees at the Elgin, Illinois facility and all other remaining union and non-union employees in the United States. The company also maintains defined contribution plans for its United Kingdom based employees.