Note 8 - Employee Benefit Plans.

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2012

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits Disclosure [Text Block]

Note 8.  Employee Benefit Plans.
 

Post Retirement Benefits.  The Company and its subsidiaries provide certain post-retirement health care and life insurance benefits to certain retired employees.  The liability for such benefits is unfunded.

The components of the Net Periodic Benefit Cost for the quarter periods ended March 31, 2012 and 2011, respectively, are as follows:

	Quarter Ended
	March 31, 2012			March 31, 2011
Service cost	$	56		$	56
Interest cost		59			102
Prior service cost		(4	)		(4	)
Loss		-			22
Total post-retirement benefit cost	$	111		$	176

The Company previously disclosed in its financial statements for the six month transition period ended December 31, 2011, amounts expected to be paid to plan participants.  There have been no revisions to these estimates and there have been no changes in the estimate of total employer contributions expected to be made for the year ended December 31, 2012.

Total employer contributions accrued for the quarter ended March 31, 2012 were $111.

Pension Benefits.  The Company and its subsidiaries also provide defined retirement benefits to certain employees covered under collective bargaining agreements.  Under the collective bargaining agreements, the Company’s pension funding contributions are determined as a percentage of wages paid.  The funding is divided between the defined benefit plans and a union 401(k) plan.  It has been management’s policy to fund the defined benefit plans in accordance with the collective bargaining agreements.  The collective bargaining agreements allow the plans’ trustees to develop changes to the pension plan to allow benefits to match funding, including reductions in benefits.  The benefits under these pension plans are based upon years of qualified credited service; however benefit accruals under the Atchison plan were frozen as of October 15, 2009 and benefit accruals under the Pekin plan were frozen as of December 10, 2009.

The components of the Net Periodic Benefit Cost/(Income) for the quarter periods ended March 31, 2012 and 2011, respectively, are as follows:

	Quarter Ended
	March 31, 2012			March 31, 2011
Service cost	$	-		$	-
Interest cost		51			59
Expected return on plan assets		(57	)		(49	)
Prior service cost		-			-
Recognition of net loss		28			34
Total pension benefit cost	$	22		$	44

The Company previously disclosed in its financial statements for the six month transition period ended December 31, 2011, the assumptions used to determine accumulated benefit obligation.

The Company has made no employer contributions to pension plan or union 401(k) during the quarter ended March 31, 2012.

Equity-Based Compensation Plans.  The Company previously disclosed in its financial statements for the six month transition period ended December 31, 2011, a description of the Company’s equity-based compensation plans.

The Company’s equity-based compensation plans provide for the awarding of shares of restricted common stock (“restricted stock” and “nonvested shares”) for senior executives and certain salaried employees as well as outside directors.  As of March 31, 2012, 1,199,661 shares of restricted common stock (net of forfeitures) remained outstanding under the Company’s long-term incentive plans.  Compensation expense related to these awards is based on the market price of the stock on the date the Board of Directors approved the grant and is amortized over the vesting period of the restricted stock award. 

In connection with the Reorganization, the Director’s Stock Plan was amended to provide for grants in the form of restricted stock units instead of restricted shares.  In contrast to restricted stock awards, shares will not be issued (and participants will not have voting or dividend rights) before awards vest and are issued.  However, the Director’s Stock Plan provides for the payment of cash dividend equivalents when dividends are paid to stockholders.

The Company has heretofore made annual restricted stock awards under its 2004 Incentive Plan.  At meetings held on March 1, 2012, the Human Resources and Compensation Committee and the Board of Directors approved awards in the form of restricted stock units, consisting of 129,000 units awarded as part of the Company’s existing long term incentive program and 45,000 units awarded as a special bonus for effort in connection with the acquisition of the distillery operations of LDI that was completed in December 2011.  These awards, which had a $6.40 per unit fair value and aggregated $1,114, will be amortized over a 5-year vesting period.  These awards entitle participants to receive an aggregate of 174,000 shares of stock following the end of the 5-year vesting period.  Full or pro rata accelerated vesting generally may occur upon a “change in the ownership” of the Company or the subsidiary for which a participant performs services,  a “change in effective control” of the Company or a “change in the ownership of a substantial portion of the assets” of the Company (in each case, generally as defined in the Treasury regulations under Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code),  or if employment of a participant is terminated as a result of death, disability, retirement or termination without cause. Participants have no voting or dividend rights under the awards; however, the awards provide for payment of cash dividend equivalents when dividends are paid to stockholders.

As of March 31, 2012, the Company was authorized to issue 40,000,000 shares of Common Stock.  In connection with the Reorganization described in Note 1 and Note 12, the Company retired its treasury stock, which had historically been used for issuance of Common Stock under the Company’s equity-based compensation plans.  With the retirement of these treasury shares, the Company reserved certain authorized shares for issuance of Common Stock under its equity-based compensation plans.  Reserved shares of Common Stock at March 31, 2012 were as follows:

Stock options granted but not exercised	42,000
Restricted stock to non-employees  (authorized but not granted)	71,061
Restricted stock to employees and executives (authorized but not granted)	1,416,778
Total	1,529,839