The story
The company was founded in 1912 as Diamond Walnut Growers, Inc., a member-owned Californian agricultural cooperative association. In July 2005, Diamond Walnut Growers converted to a Delaware corporation and initial public offering of stock as Diamond Foods.
Timeline
1912: Diamond was founded as a cooperative by a group of Californian walnut growers.
1919: Diamond was the first nut producer to launch a national advertising campaign.
1930: Diamond started to sell its nuts abroad.
1950: Diamond became the first nut company to advertise on TV.
1956: Diamond centralized its operations to Stockton, California.
1989: Diamond was the first company to adopt laser sorters in its processing plant to eliminate shell fragments.
1997: Japan became Diamond’s number one export market for shelled walnuts.
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1998: Diamond introduced a full line of shelled packaged nuts for baking and cooking and became the number one global marketer of in-shell nuts.
1999: Diamond changed its name to Diamond of California.
2000, 2002, and 2004: Diamond was the exclusive nut supplier to the U.S. Olympic teams.
2004: J Stone & Son merged with Diamond Foods.
2004: The Emerald Nuts line of snack nuts was launched.
2005: Diamond of California became Diamond Foods, Inc., and became a publicly traded company (NASDAQ DMND).
2006: Diamond acquired Harmony Foods, including an Indiana production facility.
2007: Diamond’s Super Bowl spot featuring Robert Goulet ranked as the number one ad by Advertising Age and resulted in a 68 percent sales increase of Emerald.
2008: Diamond acquired Pop Secret popcorn from General Mills.
2009: Emerald hits ten percent share of the snack nut market in U.S. food stores.
2010: Diamond acquired Kettle Foods potato chip company with operations in the U.S. and the U.K.
2011: Diamond and Procter & Gamble announced that Pringles would merge with Diamond. The deal was expected to close by June 2012.
2012: The company is troubled by an accounting scandal and the Pringles deal is cancelled.
2013: Following the accounting scandal of 2012, on January 18, 2013, Diamond Foods officially ceases all production at its Fishers, Indiana plant. Over 100 full-time employees are fired and the Harmony brand is permanently discontinued.
2014: The SEC authorized a settlement in regards to the 2012 accounting scandal. The SEC separately entered into a settlement with the former CEO, Michael Mendes. SEC litigation with the former CFO, Steven Neil, remained unresolved.
2015: The SEC entered into a settlement with Steven Neil in regards to the 2012 accounting scandal.
2016: Snyder's-Lance acquired Diamond Foods and all companies under the Diamond Foods Name.
2017: Snyder's-Lance sold the Diamond of California culinary nut business to Blue Road Capital.
From Wikipedia’s article on Diamond Foods, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7