HISTORY OF EREWHON - NATURAL FOODS ... - SoyInfo Center

1971 March – Roger Hillyard is replaced as general
manager of Erewhon–Boston.
1971 March – Paul Hawken finalizes a contract with Carl
Garrich of Lone Pine, Arkansas, to grow short-grain brown
rice organically and exclusively for Erewhon. 330 acres are
planted in April. That fall, Erewhon starts to retail and
wholesale its first organic brown rice.
1971 May – Bruce Macdonald leaves Erewhon in a dispute
over ownership of the company.
1972 – John W. Deming Jr. plans to invest $150,000 in
Erewhon in exchange for stock, and Advest Co. plans to
conduct Erewhon’s first public stock offering–but neither
happens after Michio Kushi nixes the plans.
1972 fall – Erewhon first buys organic brown rice from
Lundberg brothers of California; a fire that destroyed
Chico-San’s plant in early Aug. 1972 rendered their
exclusive contract with the Lundbergs null and void.
1973 Aug. – Paul Hawken writes a critical history of
Erewhon and its problems. Published in East West Journal
it is titled “Erewhon: A Biography. The View Within.”
Shortly thereafter Paul Hawken resigns, saying that running
Erewhon was a nightmare. Some say he sells his 25%
ownership back to the company, which was subsequently
managed by Bill Garrison, Tyler Smith, Jeff Flasher, and
Tom Williams, in that sequence.
1974 July to 1977 – Erewhon becomes the exclusive
representative and agent for both the Muso and Mitoku
companies in North America. The labels of all products
imported from these companies must bear the Erewhon
label. Starting in late 1969 a number of macrobiotic and/or
natural foods companies grew into distributors following
the models established by and with help from Erewhon:
Eden Organic Foods in Ann Arbor (started by Bill Bolduc
on 4 Nov. 1969), Food for Life (started in 1970 by Bill Tara
as a retail store on the 10th floor of a Chicago office
building), Janus in Seattle, Washington (Jan. 1972, by
George Gearhart and Blake Rankin, formerly of Spiral
Foods), Essene in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (by Feb.
1971), Laurelbrook in Maryland (Aug. 1971), Ceres in
Colorado Springs (1973), and The Well in San Jose,
California (1973, by Phil Parenti). These macrobiotic
distributors had a strong influence on the numerous other
non-macrobiotic natural food distributors, such as
Lifestream (started in 1969 as a retail store), Westbrae in
Berkeley, California (wholesale distribution: July 1970, by
Bob Gerner; retail: Feb. 1971, Gerner). Shadowfax (New
York, 1971), and Tree of Life in St. Augustine, Florida
(retail: May 1971; wholesale distribution: Feb. 1972, by
Irwin Carasso).
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HISTORY OF EREWHON 12
1975 Aug. 1 – Erewhon sells all of its West Coast Division
in California (Los Angeles and Culver City) to John
Fountain and John Deming for cash and notes, realizing a
net gain of $86,872.
1977 March 23 – Erewhon sues natural foods retail stores
in several states for boycotting Erewhon for selling to coops.
Erewhon eventually wins the case, but its legal bills are
something like $250,000. There was not enough money to
pay these fees and Erewhon never recovered.
1978 (early) – Erewhon moves into a huge warehouse and
office complex at 3 East St., Cambridge, Mass. 02141.
1979 April 27 – The workers in Erewhon’s production,
trucking, shipping, and kitchen departments vote 42-19 to
form a union affiliated with Local 925, the Service
Employees International Union.
1979 – John Deming steps in to liquidate all the assets of
financially failing Erewhon–Los Angeles. Tom DeSilva,
Tyler Smith, and Jeff Flasher buy the retail store at 8001
Beverly Blvd.
1981 Feb. – Erewhon currently lists 4,000 products in its
catalog–in its bid to become a full-line distributor. It
services 2,000 customers and provides jobs for 175 people
in its warehouse and retail stores.
1981 Nov. 10 – Erewhon files for bankruptcy protection
under Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy Act because of
debts totaling $4.3 million. At this time, Aveline Kushi is
the sole owner of Erewhon. Stow Mills picked up the lion’s
share of the Erewhon business, with Westbrae also getting a
significant part of it.
1982 May – A $1.3 million offer by Ronald Rossetti,
president of Nature Food Centres, is accepted as the
reorganization plan in the Erewhon, Inc. bankruptcy.
Rossetti purchased Erewhon as an individual; it was never
part of Nature Food Centres.
1986 – Erewhon acquires U.S. Mills, which had been
founded in 1908. In effect U.S. Mills and Erewhon were
merged, and U.S. Mills was chosen as the corporate name,
largely since it had been around longer.
1988 May – Chuck Verde (who was the president of
Erewhon) and Cynthia Davis acquired the U.S. Mills /
Erewhon business. They became the main joint
shareholders.