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Overview of activities, risk factors
2.1 History
DANONE
REGISTRATION DOCUMENT 2015
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2.1 HISTORY
Company roots: from glass to food
Danone's origins date back to 1966 when the French glass man-
ufacturers, Glaces de Boussois and Verrerie Souchon Neuvesel,
merged to form Boussois Souchon Neuvesel, or BSN. In 1970,
BSN began a program of diversification in the food and beverage
industry by successively acquiring three of its primary glass con-
tainer customers: Brasseries Kronenbourg, Société Européenne
de Brasseries and Société Anonyme des Eaux Minérales d'Évian.
These acquisitions made BSN France's market leader in beer,
bottled water, and baby food.
In 1972, Antoine RIBOUD, then the Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer of BSN, laid the foundation of the “dual economic and so-
cial project,” which has since guided the Company's strategy. The
following year, in 1973, BSNmerged with Gervais Danone, a French
food and beverage group specialized in dairy and pasta products,
becoming the largest food and beverage group in France.
1973-1990: European expansion
During the 1970s and 1980s, after selling off its flat glass opera-
tions, the BSN group focused its growth on food and beverages,
primarily in Western Europe. In particular, this expansion included
the acquisition of breweries, Générale Biscuit, a French holding
company that owned LU and other European biscuit brands, the
biscuit subsidiaries of Nabisco, Inc. and also Galbani, Italy's leading
cheese maker. BSN group became the third-largest diversified
food and beverage company in Europe, and the largest in France,
Italy, and Spain.
1990-1996: global ambitions
In the early 1990s, the BSN group started consolidating the positions
acquired in previous years in Western Europe, enabling the devel-
opment of synergies. In France, for example, BSN acquired Volvic
to strengthen its position in bottled water. During this period, the
Company also laid the groundwork for its international development
by completing numerous acquisitions and joint-ventures outside
of Western Europe (in the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America and
Eastern Europe, as well as in selected markets such as South Africa
and the Middle East).
In 1994, in order to consolidate its position as a multinational food
and beverage group, the Company decided to change the BSN parent
company's name to “Groupe Danone” (in 2009, the shareholders
would subsequently approve the change of the legal name of the
Groupe Danone parent company to “Danone”).
1996-2007: refocus on health food
In 1997, the Company decided to focus on its global business lines.
Danone therefore steadily made divestitures in its Grocery, Pasta,
Prepared Foods, Confectionery Products, Beer, Sauces and Italian
Cheese and Meats activities. Danone also sold BSN Glasspack, the
holding company of its Glass Containers business.
In 2006, Danone formalized its mission of “bringing health through
food to as many people as possible,” and the following year it com-
pleted a 10-year period of refocusing its operations on the health
food sector. Indeed, in 2007 Danone sold nearly all of its Biscuits
and Cereal Products business and acquired Numico, which enabled
it to add Early Life Nutrition and Medical Nutrition activities to its
portfolio.
2007-2014: acceleration of international development
In order to pursue its international development strategy around its
four business lines, Danone acquired the Unimilk group's companies
in Russia in 2010 and the Wockhardt group's nutrition activities
in India in 2012. In 2013, the Company forged a strategic alliance
with Mengniu, the Chinese fresh dairy products market leader, to
accelerate the growth of this product category in China. In 2014, an
agreement was signed calling for this alliance to be extended to the
infant formula category through Danone's acquisition of a stake in
Yashili, a Mengniu subsidiary. Since 2013, Danone has also accel-
erated its development on the African continent, notably with the
acquisition of a controlling interest in Centrale Danone in Morocco
and equity interests in FanMilk inWest Africa and Brookside in Kenya.
Since 2014: toward strong, profitable and sustainable growth
In 2014 Danone marked a turning point, changing its governance
structure and launching its transformational “Danone 2020” plan,
which ambition is to generate strong, profitable and sustainable
growth by 2020. In order to reinforce the Company's economic and
social impact, Danone also created its “Manifesto,” the cornerstone
of the “Danone 2020” plan.