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In the early 1900's the Petaluma Cooperative Creamery began distributing Clover Brand dairy products to stores and residential customers in the Petaluma area. As Petaluma and the rest of Sonoma and Marin Counties continued to grow, so did the Co-op. Clover Brand products were showing up in nearly every store and household in the North Bay.
In 1969, Clo the Cow first appeared as the official mascot for Clover Brand products and has graced the billboards in the Redwood Empire ever since with her magnificent smile and witty puns.
But in 1975, disaster hit. The biggest fire the town of Petaluma had ever seen struck the Co-op, destroying the processing and bottling operations, and the cooler.
Clover Stornetta Farms, Inc. was born from the ashes of that devastating fire. Following a decision by the Co-op not to rebuild the facility, the current owners of Clover Stornetta purchased the wholesale distribution business from Cal Co-op and Stornetta's Dairy in Sonoma in August of 1977.
In 1984, the company moved and consolidated all of its distribution back to Petaluma. In June, 1991, Clover Stornetta opened its new state-of-the-art milk processing facility at the Petaluma location. The Stornetta Dairy in Sonoma served as Clover's only bottling plant until then. The equipment was antiquated and much of the work was done by hand. With this new fully automated plant with computerized controls, Clover is able to do three times the volume of the old plant with virtually the same manpower.
With a strong emphasis on quality, Clover Stornetta introduced its North Coast Excellence program in 1995, with full third party certification in 1999. North Coast Excellence Certified guarantees that all of the milk bottled at the plant is from only the top milk producers in the North Coast region and comes from cows not treated with rBST (Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone). The milk is extensively tested at each stage of production in our on-site lab.
The six original owners of Clover Stornetta were Gene Benedetti, Dan Benedetti, Paul Ross, John Markusen, Gary Imm, and Bill Van Damm. In 1980, Herm Benedetti joined the group as an owner. In 1985, Bill Van Damm left the company to pursue other interests on his own. In January 1996, Mike Keefer and Kevin Imm became owners, and in January 2003 Mkulima Britt and Marcus Benedetti became owners. Paul Ross earned a well deserved retirement in 1998. All of the owners are working owners.
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