Danone divests Chiquita Smoothie shares

After three months of rumours, global dairy Danone has finally sold off its 51% stake in the Chiquita Smoothie business, claiming that it wants to concentrate more on core dairy products. The fruit drink joint venture between Danone and Chiquita Brands International (US) only kicked off in 2010. The business share moves on to German drinks and flavourings specialist Bagusat with the marketing arm entitled Chiquita Bagusat Smoothies (CBS).

French media claim insider information that the high-density fruit-in-a-bottle failed to produce the expected profits. But despite this development, Danone remains in the fruit juice business through its joint venture with Swedish dairy Skånemejerier built around the probiotic ProViva drink. Here too, however, sales have stagnated during early 2013, mainly through the EU ban on advertising health claims for such drinks.