The Board of Directors of Farmer Brothers Co. (NASDAQ:FARM) approved an amendment (the “Amendment”) to the Company’s Amended and Restated Employee Stock Ownership Plan (the “ESOP”). Under the terms of the ESOP, each participant in the ESOP has the right to direct the trustee as to the voting of the shares allocated to his or her account. To the extent a participant does direct the trustee, then the trustee will vote such shares accordingly, subject only to the trustee’s overriding fiduciary duty under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. Prior to the Amendment, shares that had not been allocated to participant accounts and shares that had been allocated, but for which ESOP participants did not provide voting direction, were voted in proportion to the allocated shares for which the trustee received voting directions. As a result of the Amendment, the ESOP will now provide that the trustee, GreatBanc Trust Company, will exercise independent fiduciary discretion over the voting of unallocated shares and shares for which the trustee receives no directions.