Fonterra buys Nestlé’s Australian business
Fonterra has bought Nestle’s yogurt and dairy dessert business in Australia. The deal is to take effect on 1 September 1, when Fonterra will take over Nestle’s factory at Echuca in northern Victoria.
Fonterra’s managing director in Australia, John Doumani says the purchase represents a significant step towards achieving the company’s growth strategy in Australia. “We currently do not have a national presence in Australia’s yogurt and dairy dessert sector. By acquiring Nestle’s yogurt and dairy dessert business, it provides us with a national position and complements our existing portfolio where we hold leading national positions in cheese and spreads through our Mainland, Bega and Western Star brands.”
Yogurt and dairy dessert brands already sold by Fonterra include Brownes’ Fresh n’ Fruity yogurt and CalciYum dairy dessert, while Nestle’s brands include Nestle yogurts, Milo Mousse, Blissful and Munch Bunch.
The deal also impacts the fight for the Dairy Farmers cooperative. Dairy Farmers currently sells Nestle’s Ski brand of yogurts and dairy desserts, but its long-term licence to manufacture, market and sell the Nestle desserts will revert to Nestle in 2012. In effect, Fonterra has locked rivals competing for the Dairy Farmers company out of being able to continue its Ski branding.
In related news, Fonterra has opened its new corporate headquarters for North America and a new Application and Sensory Technical and Development Centre (CDC) in Chicago, US.
In officially opening the new headquarters, Fonterra Chairman Henry van der Heyden said Fonterra would use its new base in Chicago, part of a relocation from Pennsylvania, to allow it to work more closely with its North American customers.
“This move puts Fonterra closer to key customers, suppliers and centres of dairy research in an area that is one of the heartlands of dairying in the United States,” says van der Heyden.
Aside from Fonterra USA’s dairy commodity, value-add specialty ingredients and branded consumer goods businesses, Fonterra is also a partner in DairiConcepts, working with the largest dairy co-operative in the US, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), to process milk from DFA members into proteins, milk powders and specialty ingredients. Fonterra also works closely with Dairy America, a group of nine US-based co-operative dairy companies, to export US origin milk powder into the global marketplace.
