Frontier Co-op history

Sales were growing so quickly, reaching $18,000 by the end of 1977, that within a few months Frontier was on the move again, taking over a former grocery store in Fairfax, Iowa, 5,200 square feet in size.

In 1978 the company responded to customer requests and began bottling essential oils for resale, and a year after that Frontier began selling products from other manufacturers, again at the behest of customers.

A year later, in March 1980, Frontier cut the first profit-sharing checks to its member-owners.

Frontier's reputation was also enhanced in 1986 when it became the first herb and spice manufacturer to receive United States Food and Drug Administration certification for organic processing.

Frontier further helped its standing in the natural foods industry in 1989 when it became the first to eliminate chemical fumigants to achieve greater purity by employing a natural carbon-dioxide process to ward off infestation in herbs and spices.

In 1990 Frontier unveiled a line of bottled spices.

Frontier generated additional revenues in 1992 when it began to sell Frontier-branded products through natural food distributors, and continued to expand the coffee line two years later when a roasting plant was opened in Urbana, Iowa.

Frontier scored another first in 1995 when it became the first company to introduce a line of certified organic essential oils.

The company also opened a marketing office in Boulder, Colorado, in 1997 and soon moved its corporate headquarters there and assumed the name Frontier Natural Products Co-op.

In 1998, Frontier bought 68 acres of land in Meigs County, Ohio, part of the state's Appalachian region, and started the National Center for the Preservation of Medicinal Herbs to conduct research on the way to cultivate native herbs, many of which were at risk of over-harvesting.

To help raise capital to fund this effort Frontier sold its organic coffee brand to Vermont's Green Mountain Coffee Inc. for $2.7 million in the summer of 2001.

In October 2003 he sold the Simply Organic boxed dinner product line to Annie's Homegrown, a Massachusetts company, but retained the Simply Organic bottled spice, seasoning mix, and flavor lines.

In August 2004 the company once again hosted Herbfest, something Bedard announced as a priority when he returned to the company.

In 2006 the company announced plans for a $3 million expansion that would add 30,000 square feet of space to the Norway facilities.

Our Well Earth sustainable sourcing program, started in 2007, is still going strong — adding supplier partners, increasing the volume of our products sourced through the program and helping grower communities around the world.