Farmer Brothers history

The firm expanded its product line to coffee equipment and supplies for commercial establishments, as well as continuing to sell the coffee itself. (Frank Farmer died in 1934.)

Construction on the new facility began in January 1949.

1951: Roy F. Farmer takes control of the company.

A year later in 1952, the long-private company was forced by its financial situation to raise funds by taking the company public. (Its shares are traded on the NASDAQ exchange, as FARM.)

The company officially moved its headquarters to the Torrance plant in 1960.

At lunchtime each day, he could be found parked behind the company's roasting plant, sitting inside his 1969 Lincoln Continental, eating lunch alone.

Farmer Boys® was founded in 1981 by five burger-loving brothers raised on a family farm.

1998: Annual sales reach a peak of $240 million.

Franklin Mutual unsuccessfully opposed the reelection of Farmer Bros.' board of directors in November 2000.

At Farmer Bros.' 2001 annual meeting, a major stockholder rose from his seat and asked if he could tour the company's coffee operations.

These included Roy F. Farmer’s passing the leadership of the company to his son, Roy E. Farmer, on March 20, 2002, while the family was embroiled in a years-long dispute with Farmer’s sister, Catherine Crowe, over membership on the company’s board of directors.

The bitter battle, which drew attention and criticism from the firm’s already uneasy public stockholders, ended with a $111 million buyout of Crowe’s shares in December 2003.

Roy F. Farmer died on March 16, 2004, after a long battle with cancer.

7, 2005, his son, Roy E. Farmer died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his Huntington Beach home.

The site was sold for $43 million in 2016 to Bridge Point South Bay LLC, which has razed the old Farmer Brothers buildings and is replacing them with a gigantic industrial park currently under construction.

Looking northwest from Normandie. (October 2017 photo by Sam Gnerre)