Spanx boss gives first class tickets and $10,000 to all her staff

The chief executive and founder of women’s shapewear company Spanx celebrated a new billion-dollar deal by giving first class tickets and $10,000 (£7000) to every employee.

Sara Blakely posted a video on her Instagram last week in which she thanked her employees, following the shapewear company’s new deal with investment giant Blackstone, which has purchased a majority stake.

The company — founded in 1998 with a capital of £3,600 — was valued at $1.2bn (£870m) in the deal.

“This is a very big moment for each and every one of you, and I want to toast the women that came before me and all of the women in the world who have not had this opportunity,” she said.

Ms Blakely then made the announcement that she was giving each of her employees two first class flight tickets to any location of their choosing along with $10,000 (£7000) to spend on the trip.

“If you go on a trip, you might want to go out to a really nice dinner, you might want to go out to a really nice hotel, and so … you are each getting $10,000,” Ms Blakely said.

The news was greeted with cheers and tears from Spanx employees as Ms Blakely herself got emotional during her speech.

She said she started the company from the money she got selling a fax machine. She wrote at that time that Spanx would one day be worth $20m. “And everybody laughed at me,” she added.

“It was an emotional announcement filled with happy tears acknowledging how far we’ve come,” Ms Blakely wrote in a caption posted to Instagram. “And then the tears really started to flow when I surprised everybody with 2 first class @delta plane tickets to anywhere in the world and $10,000 cash to spend on the trip.”

“I really want every employee to celebrate this moment in their own way and create a memory that will last them a lifetime! Cheers to 21 years of magic and many more to come,” she added.