Los Angeles Business Journal - October 3, 2005 article [link]

Forum for Shareholders of Farmer Bros. Co.

2007 Conclusion

Forum activities relating to Farmer Bros. Co. were suspended in 2007, following the second year of new management.

Note: The article below incorrectly attributes pricing targets for a purchase offer to the Forum manager. The reporter's requests for such personal views were in fact declined, and he was referred to the analysis presented in the January 7, 2005 Forum Report which suggests that competent managers should be able to generate shareholder values in excess of $40 per share for all the assets owned by Farmer Bros. Co. Responding to the reporter's further questions about pricing, the Forum manager told him only that most professionals would expect buyers to be willing to pay a price closer to the $40 realizable value per share than to the $20 current trading range of the stock.

The reported speculations about the need for a hostile offer are not based on any views of the Forum manager, who stated that he had no reason to believe that either management or the Farmer family interests would oppose an offer that may be attractive to public shareholders and the ESOP's employee beneficiaries.

Another interview subject, Jack Norberg of Standard Investment Chartered, sent the following letter to the LA Business Journal requesting correction of the views attributed to him in the article's two concluding paragraphs:

October 5, 2005 letter from Jack Norberg, Chairman of Standard Investment Chartered, Inc., to the editor of the Los Angeles Business Journal

Farmers’ Bitter Dispute Grinding Toward New Chapter
Los Angeles Business Journal: 10/3/2005 by MATT MYERHOFF
Outside shareholders are attempting to line up a sale of Farmer Bros., with the goal of ousting current management.

The Forum is open to all Farmer Bros. shareholders, whether institutional or individual, and to professionals concerned with their investment decisions. Its purpose is to provide shareholders with access to information and a free exchange of views on issues relating to their evaluations of alternatives. As stated in the Forum's Conditions of Participation, participants are expected to make independent use of information obtained through the Forum, subject to the privacy rights of other participants. It is a Forum rule that participants will not be identified or quoted without their explicit permission.

There is no charge for participation. Franklin Mutual Advisers, LLC, the manager of funds owning approximately 12.6% of Farmer Bros. shares, provided initial sponsorship for the Forum and arranged for it to be chaired by Gary Lutin. Continuing support and guidance of the Forum is provided by an Advisory Panel of actively interested shareholders.

For additional information or to be included in an email distribution list, send an inquiry to farm@shareholderforum.com.