Last year was a monumental one for the world, and a newsworthy one for Tillamook County Creamery Association, too. The Tillamook, Ore.-based cooperative became a Certified B Corporation, donated $4 million dollars to a COVID-19 relief fund and partnered with the American Farmland Trust to help secure farmland for future generations. And it did all of this while increasing its sales from $849.7 million in 2019 to a forecasted $938.6 million in 2020, says Patrick Criteser, president and CEO.
In certain ways, this was just par for the course for 112-year-old Tillamook, as these corporate-citizenship-based decisions were already in its DNA. The cooperative consists of about 80 farmer-owners who live in the Tillamook County area and who value the long-term success of the company over short-term gains.