Blue Diamond Growers

Blue Diamond Growers
Company typeAgricultural marketing cooperative
Founded1910; 114 years ago (1910) (as California Almond Growers' Exchange)
Headquarters
Calpak Plant No. 11, Sacramento, California
,
U.S.
Key people
Kai Bockmann (CEO)[1]
Products
  • Blue Diamond
  • Almond Breeze
  • Nut-Thins
Number of employees
1,800[2]
Websitewww.bluediamond.com
Blue Diamond gift shop in Salida, California.

Blue Diamond Growers is an agricultural cooperative and marketing organization that specializes in California almonds. Founded in 1910 as the California Almond Growers' Exchange, the organization claims to be the world's largest tree nut processing and marketing company. It serves 3,500 almond growers, and helps make the almond crop (valued at over $1 billion) California's largest food export.

The company produces almonds and almond-derived products in various forms, including roasted almonds, almond milk, and crackers.[3] The cooperative is privately held and in 2021, the company reported annual revenue of $1.59 billion dollars.[4]

The organization is headquartered in Sacramento, California, with two other manufacturing plants in Salida, California and Turlock, California.[5] From 2004 to 2008, it resisted attempts by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union to organize workers at its processing plant. Blue Diamond was found by the National Labor Relations Board to have violated a federal labor law in its campaign against the union.[6] In November 2008, however, the union lost an NLRB-supervised vote to establish a branch.[7]

  1. ^ Anderson, Mark (January 23, 2023). "Agriculture Executive to Watch: Kai Bockmann". Sacramento Business Journal. Retrieved March 14, 2023. Kai Bockmann will take over as the new CEO of almond giant Blue Diamond Growers on Jan. 17.
  2. ^ Holland, John (December 2, 2020). "Blue Diamond reports $1.59 billion in revenue. Almond milk from Turlock is a hit". The Modesto Bee. Retrieved March 14, 2023. Blue Diamond employs about 1,800 people at plants in Sacramento, Salida and Turlock, up about 100 from a year ago.
  3. ^ Holland, John (December 2, 2020). "Blue Diamond reports $1.59 billion in revenue. Almond milk from Turlock is a hit". The Modesto Bee. Retrieved March 14, 2023. The Sacramento plant does all of the snack nuts under the Blue Diamond brand, along with Nut-Thins crackers for people avoiding gluten…The Washington Road plant in June added Almond Breeze milk to its slicing, dicing, blanching and almond flour production.
  4. ^ "Blue Diamond Growers". Sacramento Business Journal. Retrieved March 14, 2023. Blue Diamond Growers; Revenue: $1.6B
  5. ^ Holland, John (December 2, 2020). "Blue Diamond reports $1.59 billion in revenue. Almond milk from Turlock is a hit". The Modesto Bee. Retrieved March 14, 2023. This was the 110th annual meeting for the company, launched in Sacramento in 1910. Plants followed in Salida in 1968 and Turlock in 2013.
  6. ^ Lamb, Celia (April 18, 2006). "Blue Diamond Growers won't appeal NLRB decision". Sacramento Business Journal. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
  7. ^ Doyle, Michael (September 21, 2009). "Judge rejects union's challenge to Blue Diamond election". McClatchy. Retrieved February 18, 2021.