and food processing founded 1929 1929 founder peter phlipsen headquarters fortuna california united states products ice cream and other dairy products parent foster farms dairy website humboldtcreamery.com humboldt creamery was formerly an agricultural marketing cooperative located on the california north coast currently owned by foster farms dairy of modesto california . contents 1 history 2 see also 3 references 4 external links history edit humboldt creamery building seen from fernbridge . established in 1929 as a local association of 152 dairy farms until 2009 the creamery production was entirely based on 50 relatively small family dairies located on coastal lands of humboldt and del norte counties . it was one of only two dairy operations in the united states to have free farmed certification a designation related to the extraordinary quality of life attributed to cows who live in pastures . while most of the massive dairy operations in the central valley have grain fed cows this coastal operation could boast that their cows ate fresh green grass nine months a year causing them to live twice as long and produce significantly more butterfat . the co op produced as much as 10 million gallons of ice cream annually in addition to milk butter cheese and other products under its own label and a variety of other labels and was the sole producer of costco premium ice cream . 1 this contract and purchases in 2004 of several other ice cream companies made it one of the largest ice cream producers in the western united states . 1 the co op originally provided fresh milk for local markets and converted production in excess of local demand to butter and powdered milk for export . production shifted from butter to ice cream when butter prices dropped following collapse of the soviet union . the organic label and related regional success helped the company prepare to go national in marketing at the end of 2008 at which time it was owned 75 percent by local farmers and 25 percent by dairy farmers of america . 2 financial problems came to light after the abrupt resignation of 12 year veteran ceo rich ghilarducci on february 20 2009 . 3 bankruptcy was filed two months later resulting in the sale of assets of the humboldt creamery at auction on august 27 2009 to foster farms dairy for 19.25 million . 3 4 5 the former ceo pleaded guilty to changing the values of the creamery s receivables and payables for three years between 2005 and 2008 . 3 he was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and ordered to pay 7 million restitution for a single count of making false statements to an agricultural credit bank . 3 the bankruptcy proceedings and sale resulted in many changes for the company . primary storage and production facilities remained at the original site in fernbridge california and frozen products were still based in a stockton california facility . however under order of the santa rosa bankruptcy court a more recently acquired facility in los angeles and older property located in loleta california were divided off for separate sale . the operation and all of its products had always been free of synthetic or added rbst hormone . 1 see also edit dairy farming references edit a b c wilson emily november 2 2006 . on ice cream organic milk and avoiding corporate takeovers . the north coast journal . retrieved 29 december 2008 . driscoll john ; thadeus greenson 22 april 2009 . humboldt creamery goes bankrupt seeks a fresh start . times standard eureka california . retrieved 20 october 2012 . a b c d hansen megan 20 october 2012 . u.s. attorney s office responds to ghilarducci s allegations ; former creamery boss alleges ineffective counsel . times standard eureka california . retrieved 20 october 2012 . associated press august 28 2009 . judge makes final humboldt creamery s sale to foster farms . the press democrat . retrieved 20 october 2012 . associated press 22 april 2009 . dairy co op files for bankruptcy . the sfgate . retrieved 20 october 2012 . external links edit humboldt creamery foster farms website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title humboldt creamery & oldid 720448149 categories dairy products companies of the united statescompanies based in humboldt county californiaagricultural marketing cooperativesagriculture in california navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 15 may 2016 at 23 21 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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