Sebastopol's Redwood Hill Farm and Creamery bought by Swiss dairy giant Emmi

Redwood Hill Farm & Creamery, a Sebastopol dairy that helped to pioneer the market for goat milk and cheese in the United States, announced a deal Tuesday to sell the 37-year-old company to Switzerland’s largest milk producer.

Swiss dairy giant Emmi will retain all 75 employees at Redwood Hill and continue to operate the creamery at its current location in Sebastopol, founder Jennifer Bice said.

Bice, who grew up on her parents’ goat dairy farm and turned a 4-H project into a national brand, will retain ownership of her farm and 300 goats. She will continue to oversee operations for several years until she retires.

“It’s quite emotional,” Bice, 61, said Tuesday after announcing the sale. “It’s a new chapter. A lot is happening, but it’s very exciting. I’m very happy.”

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Emmi is the largest milk processor in Switzerland, reporting more than $3.3 billion in sales last year, according to the Lucerne company’s website. It operates subsidiaries in 13 countries and exports its products to more than 60 countries around the world.

“Redwood Hill Farm is a jewel in the U.S. dairy community, built by Jennifer Bice,” Matthias Kunz, vice president for the Americas at Emmi, said in a statement. “With dedication to Sonoma County and its people, she pioneered the U.S. goat movement from the start with compassion for employees and a sustainable environment. We are really humbled to have been chosen as the partner for Redwood Hill’s future and are very pleased to be able to count on Jennifer and her team for the next years.”

Bice, along with a small handful of other dairy goat farmers, laid the foundation for the American goat cheese industry as we know it today, said Sheila Nixon, a fellow award-winning dairyman and former member of the American Dairy Goat Association’s board of directors.

Redwood Hill, Nixon said, was “easily” the No. 1 family-owned dairy goat creamery in America. Its two main domestic competitors were both snapped up by foreign companies in the past decade: Laura Chenel Chevre, the famed Sonoma goat cheese producer bought by French-owned RIANS Group in 2006, and Humboldt County’s Cypress Grove Chevre, which was purchased by Emmi in 2010.

Bice said she had been approached by multiple suitors for her business in the past, but chose Emmi because of its high standards for quality and its commitment to sustainability.

“I really wanted to have ... it continue here in Sonoma County,” she said. “I wanted to find a company that would, as much as possible, stay true to our values and continue running the company in a similar way to how it has been running.”

Cypress Grove owner Mary Keehn is a close friend of Bice. Keehn’s decision to sell her Arcata cheese company to Emmi, and her subsequent relationship with the Swiss company, also helped Bice make up her mind. “Her experience really gave me confidence to go with them,” she said.

Bice made the announcement in an open letter to friends and customers on Redwood Hill’s website Tuesday.

Founded in 1978, Redwood Hill is one of the best-known goat dairy brands in the United States. Its artisan cheeses are sold only on the West Coast, Bice said, but the company’s yogurt and kefir - its major products - are sold nationwide in health food stores like Whole Foods Market and Sprouts Farmers Market, she said. Recently, it has expanded distribution into select conventional groceries like Safeway and Raley’s.

A host of local restaurants use its products, including Zazu Kitchen, Backyard, John Ash and Willi’s Wine Bar, Bice said.

In addition to Redwood Hill, Emmi also acquired Green Valley Organics, which Bice founded in 2010 and produces lactose-free cow dairy products.

While several of Bice’s family members are involved in the business, none of them are “really very business-minded,” she said. Her two brothers, sister, niece and sister-in-law all work for the business, but they’re more farm-oriented, she said.

“Redwood Hill was a wonderful farm and creamery and basically set the standard for what people have been doing with goat’s milk,” Nixon said. “I think the sale is probably a good decision for (Bice), and probably the best possible decision that she could make for the creamery. I think she’s done the right thing, even though it’s kind of painful.

“It’s the end of an era.”

You can reach Staff Writer ?Christi Warren at 521-5205 or christi.warren@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @SeaWarren.