The largest employer in the county was first sold for $600 million, and the second time, as part of WhiteWave Foods' sale for $12.5 billion. Earthbound Farm started as a 2.5-acre plot and now grows fresh produce on more than 47,000 acres.
Earthbound Farm, the leading organic grower-shipper in the U.S., first sold in 2013 to WhiteWave Foods Co., a Broomfield, Colorado-based milk producer that sells Silk, Horizon, International Delight, and Land O’ Lakes brands.
The 2013 sale included 90 percent of the company for nearly $600 million. Earthbound Farm’s founders Myra and Drew Goodman retained 10 percent, or an estimated $60 million.
Earthbound Farm was not only owned by WhiteWave, but was included in a spin-off from its parent company, Dean Foods, to stand alongside another holding, Horizon Organic Dairy, the largest organic dairy in the nation, according to The Corporate Institute.
Once again, Earthbound Farm was part of a packaged deal, as Danone SA acquired WhiteWave and its corporate holdings for more than $12.5 billion, its largest acquisition since 2007, according to Reuters. Minus debt, the sale is worth $10.4 billion.
From the Reuters story: “The company (WhiteWave) generates $4 billion in sales and Danone said it would be able to achieve synergies of $300 million by 2020, representing eight percent of WhiteWave's 2015 sales, and 80 percent of WhiteWave 2015 earnings before interest and taxes.”
According to Earthbound Farm’s online biography, it was founded by the Goodmans in 1984 as a rented 2.5-acre raspberry patch and farm stand in Carmel Valley, making $10,000 the first year, and eventually going on to control nearly 60 percent of the bagged organic salad market in the United States.
In 1986, it was the first company to launch pre-washed salad packaged for retail sale; and in 1992 it moved its operations to a 32-acre farm in Watsonville, and built a 9,000-square-foot production facility. Soon, the company was selling its salad greens to major food retailers, including Costco, Lucky, Safeway, and Albertson’s. In 1995, it partnered with Mission Ranches, a group of third-generation farmers from the Salinas Valley, bringing in an additional 800 acres of organic farmland to the partnership. It was in 1996 that Earthbound Farm moved into its headquarters and began processing at its 25,000-square-foot facility in San Juan Bautista. With 5,800 acres farmed organically, in 1998, Earthbound Farm was the largest grower of organic produce in the country, which it still is today.
