Incentive Plans

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Share-based Payment Arrangement [Abstract]

Executive Management share-based compensation:

In 2017, shareholders approved the Albany International 2017 Incentive Plan. This plan provides key members of management with incentive compensation based on achieving certain performance or service measures. Awards can be paid in cash, shares of Class A Common Stock, Options, or other stock-based or incentive compensation awards pursuant to the Plan. Participants may elect to receive shares net of applicable income taxes.

Annual awards granted under this plan resulted in cash payments of $1.5 million in 2019, and $2.4 million in 2020 as a result of performance in in the preceding year.

Awards that were granted in 2018, 2019 and 2020, with a performance period of three years, have payments scheduled for March 2021, 2022 and 2023. If a participant terminates employment prior to the award becoming fully vested, the person may forfeit all or a portion of the incentive compensation award. The grant date share price is determined when the awards are approved each year and that price is used for measuring the cost for the share-based portion of an award. Expense associated with these awards is recognized over the vesting period of the performance period which is generally one to three years. In connection with these awards, we recognized expense of $4.8 million in 2020, $4.9 million in 2019 and $3.4 million in 2018. For share-based awards that are dependent on performance after 2020, we expect to record additional compensation expense of approximately $1.1 million in 2021 and $0.4 million in 2022. Shares payable under these plans generally vest immediately prior to payment.

Prior to the 2017 Incentive Plan, multi-year awards were granted under a plan approved in 2011. That plan provided key members of management with incentive compensation based on achieving certain performance targets over a three year period. Such awards were paid out partly in cash and partly in shares of Class A Common Stock. In March 2020, we issued 12,930 shares and made cash payments totaling $0.7 million. In March 2019, we issued 25,473 shares and made cash payments totaling $1.0 million. In March 2018, we issued 33,425 shares and made cash payments totaling $1.3 million. Expense associated with these awards was recognized over the three year vesting period. In connection with this plan, we recognized expense of $0.8 million in 2018 and an insignificant amount of expense thereafter. There are no unvested share-based awards in this Plan that are dependent on performance after 2020. Therefore, we do not expect to record additional compensation expense in future periods.

As of December 31, 2020, there were 1,102,542 shares of Company stock authorized for the payment of awards under these plans. Information with respect to these plans is presented below:


	Number of shares	Weighted average grant date value per share		Year-end intrinsic value (000's)
Shares potentially payable at January 1, 2018	157,405	$	40.30	$	6,343
Forfeitures	—	$	—
Payments	(79,762)	$	39.90
Shares accrued based on 2018 performance	34,822	$	70.59
Shares potentially payable at December 31, 2018	112,465	$	49.96	$	5,619
Forfeitures	—
Payments	(45,689)	$	36.74
Shares accrued based on 2019 performance	14,936	$	92.12
Shares potentially payable at December 31, 2019	81,712	$	65.06	$	5,316
Forfeitures	—	$	—
Payments	(20,680)	$	47.35
Shares accrued based on 2020 performance	36,808	$	73.43
Shares potentially payable at December 31, 2020	97,840	$	71.95	$	7,040

Other Management share-based compensation:

In 2012, the Company adopted a Phantom Stock plan whereby awards under this program vest over a 5 year period and are paid annually in cash based on current market prices of the Company’s stock. Under this program, employees may earn more or less than the target award based on the Company’s results in the year of the award. Expense recognized for this plan amounted to $5.4 million in 2020, $6.3 million in 2019, and $4.8 million in 2018. Based on awards outstanding at December 31, 2020, we expect to record approximately $11 million of compensation cost from 2021 to 2024. The weighted average period for recognition of that cost is approximately 2 years.

The determination of compensation expense for other management share-based compensation plans is based on the number of outstanding share units, the end-of-period share price, and Company performance. Information with respect to these plans is presented below:


	Number of shares	Weighted average value per share		Cash paid for share based liabilities (000's)
Share units potentially payable at January 1, 2018	236,096

Grants	65,370
Changes due to performance	14,343
Payments	(75,545)	$	62.69	$	4,736
Forfeitures	(12,963)
Share units potentially payable at December 31, 2018	227,301

Grants	58,878
Changes due to performance	21,740
Payments	(69,912)	$	70.67	$	5,528
Forfeitures	(22,935)
Share units potentially payable at December 31, 2019	215,072

Grants	63,104
Changes due to performance	27,921
Payments	(80,808)	$	73.04	$	5,848
Forfeitures	(11,441)
Share units potentially payable at December 31, 2020	213,848

During 2018, 2019 and 2020, the Company granted restricted stock units to four executives. The amount of compensation expense is subject to change in the market price of the Company’s stock and was recorded in Selling, general, and administrative expenses. The vesting and payments due under these grants will occur in various periods from 2019 to 2022. Expense recognized for these grants was $0.4 million in 2020, $1.1 million in 2019, and $0.5 million in 2018. Based on awards outstanding at December 31, 2020, we expect to record approximately $1.5 million of compensation cost from 2021 to 2022.

The Company maintains a voluntary savings plan covering substantially all employees in the United States. The Plan, known as the Prosperity Plus Savings Plan, is a qualified plan under section 401(k) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. The Company matches, in the form of cash, between 50 percent and 100 percent of employee contributions up to a defined maximum. The investment of employee contributions to the plan is self-directed. The Company’s cost of the plan amounted to $6.5 million in 2020, $6.8 million in 2019, and $6.3 million in 2018.

The Company’s profit-sharing plan covers substantially all employees in the United States. After the close of each year, the Board of Directors determines the amount of the profit-sharing contribution. Company contributions to the plan are in the form of cash. The expense recorded for this plan was $3.6 million in 2020, $3.7 million in 2019, and $3.2 million in 2018.