Gerard Sweeney's questions to FARMER BROTHERS (FARM) leadership • Q4 2025
Question
Gerard Sweeney questioned Farmer Brothers' ability to drive growth, improve penetration, reduce churn, and stabilize coffee volumes within the current challenging macro environment, acknowledging the difficulty of cutting costs indefinitely. Sweeney also followed up on the traction Farmer Brothers has achieved with larger restaurant groups, asking if this growth initiative is still in its early stages. He further inquired how the recent split of sales and field operations leadership, with Brian Miller and Travis Young, specifically enables a greater focus on acquiring and serving larger restaurant groups. Sweeney sought clarification on whether "business acquisition" referred to acquiring new customers rather than corporate mergers and acquisitions, and asked if Farmer Brothers could leverage its extensive DSD network and "white glove service" footprint to add more allied products beyond coffee, thereby maximizing truck stops and increasing sales.
Answer
President & CEO John Moore acknowledged the difficult macro environment but outlined a pivot from pricing actions to street-level execution to improve customer retention. He emphasized activating the DSD network for both product penetration and new customer acquisition, and targeting larger enterprise groups by leveraging Farmer Brothers' unique national scale and comprehensive service capabilities. Moore clarified that Farmer Brothers already has a significant presence with diverse client types, including large restaurant groups, across various channels like healthcare, gaming, and institutional catering, leveraging its national footprint, indicating it's an area of existing strength with further growth opportunities. He explained that Brian Miller's role involves realigning business development efforts, fostering growth through referrals from existing top food and beverage organizations, and implementing new KPIs and incentive structures specifically for pure business acquisition activities. Moore confirmed that "business acquisition" refers to the acquisition of new customers. He also confirmed that allied goods are a significant part of their business and they continuously run initiatives to drive interest in different product types, highlighting the opportunity to aggressively meet customer needs with their good, better, best portfolio, efficient inventory, and improved product mix delivery.