Lactalis still eyes certain brands in Danone to expand portfolio
FRANCE – World’s largest dairy company by volume sales Lactalis is still keen on its intent to acquire some brands of Danone even after the French peer rebuffed claims that the company was considering a sale of either part or its entire business.
Over the years, Lactalis has been partnering, advancing its operations, and finding ways of managing risks that will enable them to spend less time on administrative tasks while improving on production.
Lactalis has partnered with Cority, a global enterprise environmental, health, and safety (EHS) software provider to provide a simplified, integrated solution for managing the dairy group’s global health, safety, and sustainability programs.
The company is using the solution to integrate newly acquired business units for continuous improvements and enable it to support the growth of the company.
Lactalis selected several integrated solutions from Cority’s responsible business platform, CorityOne, including incident and risk management, audit and inspections, ESG (Environmental Social Governance) management, and sustainability performance.
Last month, Lactalis also announced a move to buy a factory in the German state of Bavaria and three local dairy brands from the cooperative Bayerische Milchindustrie eG in order to establish a long-term partnership with dairy producers in southern Germany and to boost the market for the regional products.
The deal included BMI’s fresh milk, yogurt, quark, cream, and ayran (a yogurt-based beverage) products and the regional German brands Frankenland, Thüringer Land, and Haydi.
In March it reopened one of its three manufacturing facilities in Ukraine that it had shut down amid an invasion by Russia to the country while the sites in Russia continue to operate and the products also continue to be marketed.
The company posted revenue of €22 billion (US$23.21 billion) and net income of €445 million (US$469.48 million) in 2021 but anticipates input costs to be 12 to 15 percent higher this year, suggesting that replicating those results won’t be easy.
Advisor to Lactalis, Perella Weinberg Partners is considering scenarios for the partial or total takeover of Danone but the operation would be complex for Lactalis, which has a turnover lower than that of Danone, according to the La Lettre A.
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