Diamond Foods

Founded in year 1912

How many employees  Approximately 1,500 worldwide.

In which regions does the food company operate   Active in over 100 countries around the world, with primary activity in US, Europe, the Pacific Rim, and Central and South America.

Number of brands At least 4.

4 Biggest brands Kettle Brand Potato Chips, Pop Secret, Emerald Premium Snacks, Diamond Culinary Nuts

Introduction
Founded in 1912, San Francisco-based Diamond Foods is a packaged food company focused on building, acquiring and energizing high profile brands including Kettle Chips, Pop Secret popcorn and Emerald & Diamond of California snack and culinary nuts. They have, recently, become a partial owner of Pringles potato chips. The company has approximately 1,700 year-round employees and its stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol DMND.

Fairfood’s role
In January 2011, Fairfood International first contacted Diamond Foods requesting an initial meeting to discuss the sustainability of the company’s supply chain and production practices. After numerous requests from us, Diamond Foods finally responded with an email declining to meet with us but affirming that ‘we [Diamond Foods] have several programs in place focused on monitoring our supply chain in the areas of food safety, natural sourcing, and sustainable materials.’ Diamond Foods further indicated that it would consider meeting with Fairfood in the future as it tries ‘to more systematically incorporate our sustainability efforts into our [Diamond Foods] supply chain.’ In April of 2011, we contacted Diamond Foods again to inquire into their progress on implementing sustainability initiatives into its supply chain. Fairfood articulated the common belief that it is a company’s responsibility to ensure the sustainability of its supply chain and to be transparent with its stakeholders about such sustainability initiatives. Unfortunately, Diamond Foods was slow and reluctant to engage with Fairfood, repeatedly ignoring Fairfood’s transparent communications. In June of 2011, Diamond Foods side-stepped our request to make a public, transparent communication to its stakeholders regarding its sustainability and instead responded with a private letter to Fairfood, listing only a few token measures it has undertaken. Fairfood believes this letter is neither sufficiently comprehensive nor sufficiently transparent to demonstrate Diamond Foods’ company-wide commitment to sustainability.

Current status
Fairfood has reiterated its request that Diamond Foods make a public declaration of its commitment to sustainability by openly disclosing its sustainability policies and goals to all relevant stakeholders. We are also in the midst of gathering support from our constituency and we reserve the right to call public attention to these issues as a means of motivating Diamond Foods, as a corporate citizen, to take responsibility for the sustainability of its supply chain.

Link to Wikipedia and other pages that are relevant to the company Website Diamond Foods Wikipedia Diamond Foods