COMPANY BACKGROUND

Facilities

Frontier is headquartered on 56 acres of land a mile and a half outside the small town of Norway, Iowa. We moved to this area in 1982 and built a 22,152-square-foot building to hold all of our operations, warehousing, and offices. Today, our facility has grown to 145,000 square feet and houses our corporate offices and our spice, seasoning, bulk, and distribution businesses. The plant is a food-production facility and is American Institute of Baking (AIB) certified.

Aura Cacia, our aromatherapy and natural personal care business, is located in a 24,000-square-foot production facility 25 miles from headquarters near the town of Urbana, Iowa. The building is a remodeled coffee facility and sits on 4.9 acres of naturally managed land.

In 2011, we purchased a 102,200-square-foot facility in North Liberty, Iowa, for expanded raw material storage and manufacturing capabilities.

Our Urbana and Norway facilities are certified organic handlers in accordance with USDA’s National Organic Program. North Liberty will be certified as an organic handler when we start processing operations there.

In addition, we rent office space in Boulder, Colorado, for our Creative Department and have home-based personnel situated around the country.

Products

We offer nearly 10,000 products across 290 brands (including our own brands of Aura Cacia, Simply Organic and Frontier) through our distribution business. Products sold under our own brands are: Frontier bulk herbs, spices, teas, food ingredients, and seasonings; Frontier bottled spices, seasonings, and flavors; Simply Organic spices, seasoning mixes, flavors, and foods; and Aura Cacia essential oils, skin care oils, and personal care products. We also manufacture private-label spices and essential oils.

Ownership

Frontier was founded in 1976. It is organized as an Iowa cooperative, owned by more than 30,000 wholesale customers. Each member has one share and one vote. The members elect a Board of Directors that hires Frontier's CEO and oversees the business in the interest of the members. Member/owner investment provides the capital for the business to operate, and the Co-op's annual net income is divided among the members according to patronage.

Structure

The company is divided into three business units: Frontier Distribution LLC, Frontier Food and Flavorings LLC, and Frontier Essentials LLC. Frontier Distribution handles order processing and shipping to all wholesale and retail customers. The other two business units are manufacturers who sell product through distributors, including Frontier Distribution. Frontier Food and Flavorings includes both Frontier and Simply Organic branded products. Frontier Essentials is the Aura Cacia brand of aromatherapy and personal care products.

Governance

Frontier's Board of Directors has nine members:
• six directors elected by the membership for three-year terms (patron directors)
• two members elected by the Board for two-year terms (at-large directors)
• the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Co-op

The Board’s mandate is to provide direction and oversight for the business affairs of the Cooperative, acting in the interests of the members. The Board is organized into three standing committees: Executive, Audit & Finance, and Governance. The Frontier Board members and their officer and committee assignments as of January 2011 were as follows.

Executive Committee: Adam Strauss (President and Executive Committee Chair), Lindy Bannister (Vice President), Gene Kahn; Audit & Finance Committee: Pedro Garcia (Chair), Grant Lundberg, Peter Backman; Governance Committee: Jesse Singerman (Chair), Frontier CEO Tony Bedard (Secretary/Treasurer) and Chuck Eggert.

The Chief Executive Officer is hired by and reports to the Board. Tony Bedard has served as the company’s CEO since 2001. He leads a nine-person management team, consisting of himself and Cole Daily (Vice President of Supply Chain), Dr. Ravin Donald (Vice President of Quality Assurance and Research and Development), Nancy Hinkel (Human Resources Director), Bill Kooistra (Chief Financial Officer), Clint Landis (Chief Marketing Officer), Kathy Larson (Vice President of Sustainability), Mike Otter (Director of Operations), and Steve Shriver (Vice President of Aura Cacia).

A committee of seated Board members nominates Board election candidates. Candidates are nominated based on qualifications and ability to contribute to the governance of the Cooperative. We strive for a diverse Board with skills across all strategic aspects of the business (such as finance, strategic planning, and sustainability) so the Board can, as a whole, protect the interests of the members and contribute to the growth and development of the organization. Candidates may also be nominated by petition.