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Diamond Dairy was a wholesale and home-delivery retail dairy company located at 4706 Grove Street (from 1934) which processed and distributed fluid milk throughout the Oakland area. It was founded in 1930 by Frank J. Ortman and his brother Herman Ortman.

Herman died in 1935. In 1950, Frank Ortman and Jack E. Silva sold the dairy to Orral M. Anwyl. 3 The dairy was then acquired by Foremost Dairies in February 1952. 5 Diamond Dairy then was merged with R. A. Shuey Creamery when that dairy was also acquired by Foremost in December 1952.

1950 ad

Diamond Dairy was the first of several California dairies which processed and marketed fluid milk that were acquired by Foremost Dairies in the 1950s. The primary function of the Diamond Dairy facilities was as a control laboratory testing recombined milk products that were subsequently shipped abroad to Asian countries. 1

Total fluid milk sales from Diamond Dairy amounted to 2.4% of of the combined Alameda-Contra Costa County region, with net sales of approximately $737,000 for the year ending on March 31, 1951.

Foremost had 3.9% of fluid milk sales in the Alameda-Contra Costa region in 1953 through its operations of the Diamond Dairy and Shuey Creamery facilities. 1

In September 1952 Diamond Dairy showed wage rate gains of $13.50 per month. 2

1950 Sanborn excerpt

Links and References

  1. Federal Trade Commission Decisions Complaint in the Matter of Foremost Dairies, Inc.
  2. The Office Worker (Official Organ of the Office Employees International Union of the A. F. of L.) Washington, D.C., September 1952
  3. Oakland Dairy Farm Purchased Oakland Tribune April 14, 1950
  4. Ortman, Berkeley Dairyman, Is Dead Oakland Tribune July 28, 1935
  5. Oakland Firms In Consolidation Oakland Tribune February 16, 1952
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