An Update from the Frontier Co-op CEO

Following up the previous edition's report on Frontier Natural Products Co-op, interim CEO Andy Pauley wrote:

Since July 16 when I took the job of interim CEO at Frontier, we have been very busy working to improve the situation. Decisions were made two years ago to develop and market new brands, and the effort to do that outweighed the efforts to maintain and grow Frontier's traditional businesses in bulk herb and spices, distribution of other people's products, and, to some extent, the Aura Cacia aromatherapy line.

Our efforts are now fully focused on our traditional business that allowed us to grow and maintain our position as a leading member of the natural products industry. We have hired some of the key managers who led the company to success for many years.

The management group that led the drive for the new products has left the company. These efforts to develop new product lines were costly, and Frontier will report a significant loss for the first time in its history. I regret this. We will correct the problems that have been created.

As a co-op we will continue to seek support of the co-op community and to be supportive of cooperative principles. In late September I completed the annual membership letter, which went out to all of our coop members. In this letter I discussed the last year in more detail. By the time of annual meeting on October 26 we will have completed our audited financial statements. I will have more to say about our next steps to recovery and to restoring Frontier Natural Products Coop as the company we have all been committed to for many years. I will report back in considerable detail in the next issue of Cooperative Grocer. At that time I will be in a better position to give a more comprehensive view.