French food group Danone has announced plans to triple the size of its plant-based business to €5 billion by 2025, as it pushes further into the field of healthy-eating trends.
"The goal is to triple our plant-based business to €5 billion by 2025, from €1.7 billion in 2018," Francisco Camacho, executive vice-president for Danone's Essential Dairy and Plant Based unit told an investors' briefing on Monday.
Last year, Danone bought US organic food producer WhiteWave in a $12.5 billion deal, to boost growth and bring the company more into line with current trends for healthy eating.
Consumer Trust
As more consumers opt for healthy diets and try to pursue a more socially responsible lifestyle, Danone – along with rivals such as Nestlé – has been seeking to rebuild that element of consumers' trust in big food companies.
Bridgette Heller, executive vice-president for Danone's Specialised Nutrition division, expected that that aspect of the business would return to "strong positive" sales growth in China in the second half of next year.
Infant Nutrition
Heller also expected the Chinese infant formula market to grow by low to mid-single digits in the coming years, and that Danone would outperform the market going forward.
Last week, Danone reported a 1.5% fall in third-quarter sales at its Specialised Nutrition arm, as sales in China dropped 20% following a period of strong growth. It had cautioned that the slowdown in China would last several quarters. [Pic:©Moovstock/123RF.COM]
News by Reuters, edited by ESM. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
