Farmer Brothers Announces Opening of West Coast Distribution Center

NORTHLAKE, Texas, Feb. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Farmer Bros. Co. (NASDAQ: FARM) (the “Company”), a leading national coffee roaster, wholesaler, and distributor of coffee, tea, and culinary products, today announced the opening of a new 156,600 sq. ft. distribution center in Rialto, California.

The Rialto facility opening reflects the successful execution of the Company’s last major supply chain optimization initiative as part of its broader turnaround strategy. As previously announced, the optimization plan also included closing the Houston, Texas manufacturing facility and capacity enhancements made to the Company’s state-of-the-art Dallas-Fort Worth facility.

With 40% of Farmer Brother’s customers located on the West Coast, the Company expects this new distribution center to enable the Company to fulfill product orders more quickly, improve delivery times and provide better customer service, leading to meaningful transportation and distribution efficiencies. The facility is also designed to mitigate future capital expenditure requirements for customer equipment with its new coffee brewing equipment (“CBE”) refurbishing center. These efficiencies, combined with the closing of the Houston facility, the enhanced Dallas-Fort Worth facility, and HighJump handheld solution’s rollout, are expected to drive improved Company performance as the economy recovers from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Deverl Maserang, Chief Executive Officer, commented, “I’m excited to be returning Farmer Brothers to its West Coast roots with this outstanding new facility. It will significantly improve our supply chain and customer service while also driving benefits for our shareholders. I want to commend our team for their rapid and successful execution in getting the Rialto facility ready by our early 2021 deadline. We began construction on the facility in October, loaded inventory in late December, and by early January of this year, we successfully fulfilled our first outbound shipment.”

Mr. Maserang continued, “The opening of this facility marks a pivotal point in the execution of our turnaround strategy. We’re now properly positioned for enhanced post-pandemic performance and will begin to shift our broader strategy from optimization and stabilization to accelerating growth and innovation.”

The new West Coast facility will provide better CBE servicing and faster turnaround times for customers. It boasts 18 docking doors and 26 trailer storage spaces, facilitating improved delivery capabilities within the Company’s network. Further, given the facility’s strategic location, the Company now has the option to leverage other transportation modes, such as air, rail, and ocean. The facility will distribute products to the Company’s branch locations and service equipment through the Company’s specialized CBE technicians in seven key U.S. states.

Maurice Morange, Chief Sales Officer, added, “This is an exciting time for Farmer Brothers, and we are looking forward to delivering on the promise of the Rialto facility with customers and supply chain partners. This DC will enable even higher levels of support to our customers and provide a site for evaluation of new service and support technologies. All to benefit our valued customers.”

About Farmer Brothers

Founded in 1912, Farmer Bros. Co. is a national coffee roaster, wholesaler, and distributor of coffee, tea, and culinary products. The Company’s product lines include organic, Direct Trade, and sustainably produced coffee. With a robust line of coffee, hot and iced teas, cappuccino mixes, spices, and baking/biscuit mixes, the Company delivers extensive beverage planning services and culinary products to its U.S. based customers. The Company serves a wide variety of customers, from small independent restaurants and foodservice operators to large institutional buyers like restaurant, department and convenience store chains, hotels, casinos, healthcare facilities, and gourmet coffee houses, as well as grocery chains with private brand coffee and consumer branded coffee and tea products, and foodservice distributors.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release constitute “forward-looking statements.” When used in this communication, the words “will,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “estimates” and “believes,” and similar expressions and statements that are made in the future tense or refer to future events or developments, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the extent and duration of the disruption to business and customers related to the COVID-19 pandemic, levels of consumer confidence, competition, changes in consumer preferences including equipment preferences, ability and speed to ramp up distribution in the new facility in Rialto, business conditions in the coffee industry and food industry in general, weather and special or unusual events, as well as other factors described from time to time in our filings with the SEC. These statements are based on management’s current expectations, assumptions, estimates and observations of future events and include any statements that do not directly relate to any historical or current fact; actual results may differ materially due in part to the risk factors set forth in our most recent annual, periodic and current reports filed with the SEC. Undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements in this communication, which are based on information available to the Company on the date hereof, and the Company assumes no obligation to update such statements.

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