September 19, 2008
Mr. Andre Radandt
Chairman of the Board
Bolthouse Farms
7200 E. Brundage Lane
Bakersfield, CA 93307
VIA FAX 661-366-8072
Dear Mr. Radandt:
As you are aware, your father-in-law, William Bolthouse, Jr. contributed $100,000 to Protect Marriage / Yes on Proposition 8 on April 3, 2008. His early huge support was one of the main reasons that this constitutional initiative qualified for the November 4th ballot. His money helped enable the committee to hire hundreds of paid professional petition circulators to collect the signatures necessary to qualify this measure for the November ballot.
Since the day of Bill Bolthouse’s $100,000 contribution, Bolthouse Farms http://bolthouse.com/ has tried to distance itself from the man who helped the company become the world’s 2nd largest carrot producer, while diversifying into many other products including 14 varieties of fruit, coffee and vegetable drinks, all types of whole and cut carrots products and salad dressings. The company has insisted that William Bolthouse “is no longer involved in the operations of the company.”
You, his son-in-law, are Chairman of Bolthouse Farms. Bill Bolthouse ran Bolthouse Farms for decades, until your family sold off a majority interest to Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC http://www.mdcp.com/ of Chicago in 2005. The Daily Deal reported on October 14, 2005 that when you and your father-in-law struck the deal with Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC they purchased 57% of your $1.2 billion dollar company. The Daily Deal as well as other news accounts stated that the family retained substantial ownership. It also appears that your father-in-law retained ownership of Bolthouse Properties and now leases farmland back to Bolthouse Farms. This represents over 7,000 acres of farmland in Kern, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. Sounds like “involvement” to me.
There is more.
Under the heading ‘Company History’ on the Bolthouse Farms web site, it states: “Today, the third and fourth Bolthouse generations operate one of the largest carrot operations in the world.” http://bolthouse.com/html/cs_comp_historyn.html
On all of your labels you mention that Bolthouse Farms is a fourth generation company. You are now the Chairman (fourth generation) and your father-in- law would be the third, since the company was founded by his grandfather back in 1915.
In the May 8, 2004 Christian Business Daily article titled, “Bolthouse Farms: Cornering the Market with God’s Principles”; you stated, “Stewardship and integrity have always been a part of the business and have been well-established culturally”…”My job is to preserve that. …the integrity side involves using the business as a platform for ministry.” In the same article it said, “Andre maintains that Bolthouse Farms is very much still the same company.” You made such a strong case throughout this article for sharing the same views as your father-in-law, how can you separate yourself from them now?
Also in the Christian Business Daily article it said, “In 2002, Andre Radandt took over as President and CEO of Bolthouse Farms, while Bill stepped into the role of chairman of the board and took the helm of Bolthouse Properties”, which further supports the roll Bill Bolthouse plays with Bolthouse Properties.
The Wall Street Journal ran a story on August 27, 2008 about Californians Against Hate and Bolthouse Farms was the lead in the story http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121979337416974603.html?mod=googlenews_wj
A few days later I received a call from someone who identified himself as a representative of Bolthouse Farms. He wanted to discuss some kind of compromise between our organization and Bolthouse Farms. He was adamant that Bill Bolthouse was not involved with Bolthouse Farms and “didn’t want me to embarrass myself by taking any action against them.” I asked this gentleman if Mr. Bolthouse owned any of the farmland where Bolthouse Farms grows crops. He told me that he would have to get back to me on that. Three days later, on Tuesday, September 2, 2008, he did and he said that Mr. Bolthouse owned the land and leases it back to Bolthouse Farms. Does your father-in-law lease all 7,000 acres back to the company?
On that September 2nd call, I told your representative that I would make myself available to meet with company officials so they could show me financial and real estate records that demonstrate that William Bolthouse is no longer involved with Bolthouse Farms. I never heard back, so I called him again on Tuesday of this week, after no contact in over 2 weeks. There was still no response to my meeting request.
The gay and lesbian community is in the middle of a campaign to defeat a Constitutional Initiative that will eliminate marriage for same-sex couples in California. All we want is equality, to be treated with respect and dignity and have the same rights that are guaranteed to all.
So, as of Saturday, September 20, 2008, Californians Against Hate will embark on an effort to get the message out to the gay and lesbian community and our millions of friends, family members, neighbors and co-workers all over the United States to, “Don't Buy Bolthouse.” There are many other juices, carrot brands, coffee drinks and salad dressings available without the Bolthouse name attached.
William Bolthouse’s $100,000 contribution is an insult to gay and lesbian Americans. Why should we spend our hard-earned money buying Bolthouse Farms’ products only to have it used against us?
Sincerely yours,
Fred Karger
Campaign Manager
Californians Against Hate
http://californiansagainsthate.com/
619-592-2008
cc: William Bolthouse, Jr