News Global Dairy Top 20
Lactalis strengthens leading position in dairy
Last year, France's Lactalis strengthened its leading position as the largest dairy company in the world through a series of acquisitions. The company increased revenue by about €2,4 billion to €22,6 billion, with about €2,0 billion being purchased.
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The lead over Nestlé's dairy division, the number two in the industry, increased to €4,6 billion. Danone, also French, rose to third place, displacing the first cooperative in the rankings, the American Dairy Farmers of America (DFA).
Cooperatives are having a hard time
Rabobank notes that most globally operating cooperatives in the rankings are having a relatively difficult time and 'to some extent appear to be reaching the limits of their organic growth in their home markets'. This applies to DFA, Fonterra, FrieslandCampina and Arla.
Fonterra remained stable at number 6, FrieslandCampina and Arla both fell in the rankings, successively from places 7 and 8 to 8 and 9.
Arla is catching up with RFC
Arla has increasingly approached FrieslandCampina this year and is expected to overtake FrieslandCampina next year, Rabobank believes. The cause is the fact that the Amersfoort cooperative has divested more and more activities in recent years, while Arla has not done so. The German DMK, parent company of DOC Kaas, has also dropped in the rankings. From place 12 to place number 18. The cause of this is mainly the sale of the majority stake in trading company Fude + Serrahn. This means it has lost €1,2 billion in turnover.
