FRANCE – Danone has launched a new yoghurt portfolio in France, introducing a range of new yoghurts as part of a reinvention in order to reverse the decline in the country’s yoghurt category.

The new range offerings include a range of all-natural and whole-milk yoghurts under the Danone brand, which will be available in both natural and flavoured versions.

It will also contain white cheese with 1% and 3.2% fat content, as individual variants of vanilla, orange blossom and honey will be available.

According to French newspaper Les Echos, Danone has experimented with a different way of packaging the products to appeal to consumers on shelves.

The switch from its traditional blue to pared-back white packaging has notably gained popularity as signs of increase in consumer uptake are visible.

“Yogurt is no longer a consumer priority. Only one customer out of two leaves the store with yogurt, while two-thirds of them come with a shopping list including yogurts,” said François Eyraud, CEO of Danone Fresh Products France, as quoted by the Financial Daily.

According to Eyraud, the re-launch would allow the company to increase the price of its natural yogurt by between US$0.24 and US$0.29, helping remedy a situation in France where yogurt prices generally are much lower than similar markets such as Italy or the UK.

Danone said the range would help consumers to ‘rediscover the goodness’ of natural yogurt, with a range of products that were ‘good to taste, good for health, and good for the local economy.’