Farmer Brothers Company Selects The Principal Financial Group
Sept. 22, 2005 (Des Moines, Iowa) — The Principal Financial Group®, the nation's 401(k) leader and total retirement solutions innovator, announced it was selected to provide total retirement plan solutions for Farmer Brothers Company. Founded in 1912, Farmer Brothers roasts, packages and distributes coffee and allied products to restaurants, hotels, fast-food outlets, convenience stores and hospitals in the 28 western states.
The Farmer Brothers retirement plans include more than $156 million in transfer assets in their defined contribution plans, defined benefit plans and their Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). These plans serve approximately 1,000 employee owners.
"We selected The Principal® for our retirement plan services because of the benefits of combining all these plans with a top provider, " said John Simmons, Treasurer, at Farmer Brothers. "The Principal provides the services we need, under one roof, and we expect that our internal operations will become more time efficient and less costly."
Paul A. Brown, vice president at The Principal, added, "We're proud to be associated with Farmer Brothers whose 'Consistently Good' logo applies to their products and service and extends to their treatment of employees. Farmer Brothers offers several retirement plans. While that's a strong benefit to employees, it can be cumbersome to the employer to deal with multiple providers. Our approach to total retirement services helps create a more efficient process."
The Farmer Brothers' 401(k) plans offer employees open access to a wide variety of investment options managed by several premier investment managers including Principal Global Investors, Inc. the asset management arm of The Principal.
The Principal is a nationally recognized leader in total retirement services and recordkeeping serving approximately 45,000 employer plan sponsors and more than 3 million plan participants. The Principal, a recognized leader in plan compliance services, also will assist in providing extensive plan consulting and plan design expertise. Plan participants will receive the latest tools including: online account information and education through a website, The Principal Retirement Service Center® (www.principal.com), interactive educational and asset allocation tools, Morningstar investment option information, easy-to-understand participant statements, on-site investment education and retirement planning seminars, toll-free access to retirement specialists, rollover assistance, and the quarterly magazine Plan Ahead. Get Ahead.®
About The Principal Financial Group
The Principal Financial Group®
(The Principal®)1
is a leader in offering businesses, individuals and institutional clients a wide range of financial products and services, including retirement and investment services, life and health insurance and banking through its diverse family of financial services companies. A member of the Fortune 500, the Principal Financial Group has $187.8 billion in assets under management2 and serves some 15.2 million customers worldwide from offices in Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America and the United States. Principal Financial Group, Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PFG. For more information, visit www.principal.com.
1) "The Principal Financial Group" and "The Principal" are registered service marks of Principal Financial Services, Inc., a member of the Principal Financial Group.
2) As of June 30, 2005.
