Seven years after nearly collapsing from a financial mismanagement scandal, Humboldt Creamery is ready to go national, courtesy of a deal between Foster Farms and Walmart.
After 80 years as a small-town agricultural cooperative, Humboldt Creamery was forced into bankruptcy in 2009 after then-CEO Rich Ghilarducci was found to have cooked the books. The co-op’s assets were sold at auction to Foster Farms Dairy, and while the Humboldt Creamery name and labeling survived, the creamery itself was subsumed into Foster Farms subsidiary Crystal.
But it’s still producing dairy products from the happy cows here in the bovine paradise of Humboldt County. And shoppers nationwide will now have the opportunity to sample the sweetness at America’s most popular and least loved grocery retailer, Walmart.
Here’s a company press release:
Humboldt Creamery announces its foray into the national dairy market with the launch of its first national product offering, a line of super-premium organic ice cream to be offered at more than 3,000 Walmart stores across the country.
“We’re excited to begin offering super-premium organic ice cream products to consumers across the nation through our national deal with Walmart,” said CEO Frank Otis. “Our mission through this new product launch is to make organic ice cream accessible to a wider variety of consumers. Humboldt County is one of the most pristine places on the earth for grazing dairy cows and our company has a long history of making organic dairy products. Our goal is to make Humboldt Creamery one of the leading organic dairy producers in the U.S. The launch of our ice cream line in Walmart represents just the beginning of what promises to be an exciting year for us.”
The line initially includes five organic flavors: vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, coffee, and mint chip. The ice cream will be sold in 1.25 Qt. containers at an affordable price, making this a delicious treat for families, just in time for the spring and summer months ahead. “Our customers share our values. They want high quality dairy products that are organic, clean and delicious. In our opinion, you can’t go wrong with that,” says Dennis Roberts, VP of Sales.
About Humboldt Creamery
Founded in 1929 and owned by the Foster family since 2009, Humboldt Creamery, based in Fortuna, California, produces a variety of premium organic dairy products using cows’ milk from our family-owned farms in Humboldt County. Our products include fluid milk, ice cream, butter, cottage cheese and sour cream. For Humboldt Creamery, quality and consistency build the foundation for success. That quality begins with a distinctive sense of place that is unlike anywhere else. Organic certification ensures that every item produced by Humboldt Creamery is from cows that have grazed on organic pastures free of pesticides, have not been treated with hormones or antibiotics and are fed from non-GMO feed sources.