French dairy giant Lactalis has bought the US-based Icelandic-style yogurt maker Siggi’s for an undisclosed price.
Siggi’s was founded by Siggi Hilmarsson who, after moving to New York from his native Iceland, started making his own yogurt.
Hilmarsson found American too sweet and full of extra ingredients, and so devised a recipe based on skyr, a local style of yogurt he grew up eating in Iceland with less sugar.
He started by selling his yogurt at an outdoor market in downtown Manhattan in 2006 and has since expanded the brand to becoming a bestseller in US grocery chains including Stop & Shop, Meijer and Publix.
It recently became the number one selling yogurt brand overall in Whole Foods Market.
Standalone Company
Siggi’s will continue to operate as a standalone company out of its New York City office under its current leadership team, which includes Hilmarsson as CEO and Bart Adlam as president.
"We're excited to join the Lactalis family which offers the opportunity to further fuel our growth," said Hilmarsson. "Our core values of clean ingredient label and less sugar will remain 100% unchanged. Consumers everywhere are actively trying to reduce sugar in their diets so our offering has a global relevance."
“Siggi's topline grew 50% in 2017 and we expect to match this in 2018 as we launch further innovations,” added Bart Adlam . “We are excited to keep the momentum going with support from the largest dairy player in the world."
"We are delighted to welcome Siggi's to the Lactalis Group, which further expands our yogurt platform in the US with this unique and fast-growing yogurt brand,” said Emmanuel Besnier, president of the Lactalis Group.
“We look forward to supporting Siggi's as it continues to bring its retail partners exceptional dollar growth in the yogurt category.”
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Kevin Duggan. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
