After a nearly two-decade run as a family-owned business producing and distributing local artisan cheeses, Point Reyes Station’s Cowgirl Creamery and its Petaluma-based wholesale distributor, Tomales Bay Foods, were sold last Friday to a large Swiss dairy company called Emmi. Cowgirl marks the latest in a string of artisan cheese companies in California acquired by Emmi, which last year netted sales more than $3.3 billion and will assume full control of the creamery by the end of this month.
Founders Sue Conley and Peggy Smith, now in their 60s, will stay on as vice president and president, and say no changes will be made to staff or local dairy providers. The duo views the sale as a way to keep the company going after they retire. “They don’t want to change anything,” Ms. Conley said. “They want us to keep running it for as long as we want.”
With Emmi’s financial backing, Ms. Conley and Ms. Smith plan to build a new creamery in Petaluma to meet a growing demand for their products as the popularity of locally sourced, artisan cheeses skyrockets. (Cowgirl did not sell the building it owns in Point Reyes Station, and will lease the creamery and shop space to Emmi and the other current tenants.)
For its part, Emmi views the merger as a means to strengthen its portfolio of American-made specialty cheeses and increase its North American holdings. Emmi acquired the Arcata-based Cypress Grove Chevre in 2010 and Sebastopol’s Redwood Hill Farm and Creamery just six months ago. “International growth is a part of Emmi’s strategy and is achieved both organically and through further acquisitions,” the company stated in a press release on Tuesday.
Neither party plans to disclose details of the sale.
Ms. Conley and Ms. Smith opened shop in a renovated hay barn in downtown Point Reyes in 1997 at a time when both were chefs. With Ms. Conley hailing from Berkeley’s Bette’s Oceanview Diner and Ms. Smith from Chez Panisse, the duo began using milk from neighboring Straus Family Creamery and, over time, came to employ nearly 100 employees.
Last year, Cowgirl and Tomales Bay Foods generated over $20 million in sales.
New York-based cheese importer Adam Moskowitz, who put on the popular Cheesemonger Invitational in San Francisco this year, said the additional revenues from the purchase will be a blip in the billions in revenue the Swiss conglomerate generates. He noted that Emmi has been buying up small cheesemakers who lack what he called continuity plans. Even so, as long as the employees, farmers and—importantly—Ms. Conley and Ms. Smith are happy, “then who are any of us to throw shade?” he asked.
Despite boasting two creameries—in Point Reyes and Petaluma—and retail stores in Point Reyes and San Francisco, Cowgirl’s production reached capacity about three years ago, and plans to build a third creamery were set in motion.
With a location in Petaluma picked out and a lease ready to be inked, the proposed new creamery would churn out more of Cowgirl’s aged cheeses like Wagon Wheel, Ms. Conley said, and serve as a lab for its cheesemakers to tinker with new creations. Cottage cheese may also make a return to its cheese roster, Ms. Conley said, and the popular Mount Tam triple cream may benefit from a slight boost as well.
And with Emmi footing the bill, Ms. Conley said the company would not have to fret over the burden of long-term loan obligations.
“We’re a little bit reluctant to borrow money,” she said. “We’re not slowing down, but we’re moving forward without the stress of debt.”
Ms. Conley said Emmi had floated on the radar for a while—particularly following sales by their friends Jennifer Bice, of Redwood Hill, and Mary Keehn, of Cypress Grove—as a solution to preserve the company after she and Ms. Smith’s depart. She praised Emmi as “100-percent dairy-focused,” whose origins trace back to a cooperative of dairy farmers. Dairy farmers still represent 60 percent of the company’s board, she said, testifying to Emmi’s ongoing dairy ties.
“They are very connected, as we are, to the people who provide the milk,” she continued. “They want local people to run the business, and they don’t want to bring people in from outside because they like the way we do it. So we believe it’s the best decision we could make.”
Ms. Bice, likewise, said she felt comfortable selling her beloved Redwood Hill last December because of the company’s high regard within the close-knit cheese community. Also in her 60s, Ms. Bice saw the sale as a way to keep her nearly 80-employee venture alive beyond her tenure.
“That [decision] was a hard one for me because I’m a real local person,” she said. “But all of those employees are going to be able to continue on and stay in the community, and the community is going to be able to continue to have the product.”
Congratulations have poured in since the sale’s announcement on Monday. Many praised Ms. Conley and Ms. Smith for their hard work and their desire to keep the business going.
“As dear friends of Peg and Sue, and as colleagues in the local cheese community, we couldn’t be happier for them and their employees,” said Jill Giacomini Basch, one of four sisters and co-owners of the family-run Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company.
Marshall sheep rancher Marcia Barinaga—whose Basque-style cheeses have been distributed by Tomales Bay Foods since 2009—said Cowgirl representatives contacted her and other local cheesemakers to give reassurances that the Emmi-owned company would continue to vend their cheeses. But even if Cowgirl had not reached out to her, Ms. Barinaga said, she doubts she would have felt concerned for the future due to Emmi’s track record.
“But I do feel a bit wistful,” she added. “It’s the end of an era.”