TITLE DEED
Danone
Rent $6
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| Type | Public (Euronext: BN |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1919, Spain |
| Headquarters | Boulevard Haussmann, Paris, France |
| Key people | Franck Riboud (Chairman of the board and CEO), Jacques Vincent (Vice-Chairman and COO) |
| Industry | Food industry |
| Products | Dairy products, water, baby food |
| Revenue | €15.22 billion (2008)[1] |
| Operating income | ▲ €2.270 billion (2008)[1] |
| Profit | ▲ €1.313 billion (2008)[1] |
| Employees | 80,140 (2008)[1] |
| Website | www.danone.com |
Besides the Danone/Dannon brand of yoghurts, the company owns several internationally known brands of bottled water: Volvic, Evian, and Badoit. About 56% of its 2006 net sales derived from dairy, 28% from beverages, and 16% from biscuits and cereals.[4]
Danone owns many water brands worldwide. In Asia, it has acquired Yili, Aqua (Indonesia), and Robust (92%), and has a 51% holding in China's Wahaha Joint Venture Company, giving it a total market share of 20%, making it the leading vendor of packaged water in Asia.
The original company bearing the corporate name was founded in 1919 by Isaac Carasso in Barcelona (Spain) as a small factory producing yoghurt. The factory was named "Danone", a Catalan diminutive of the name of his first son, Daniel.
In July 2007, it was announced that Danone had reached agreement with Kraft to sell its biscuits division, including the LU and Prince brands, for around €5.3 billion.[3] Also in July 2007, a €12.3 billion cash offer by Danone for the Dutch baby food and clinical nutrition company Numico was agreed to by both boards,[11] creating the world's second largest manufacturer of baby food.
Due to its narrow focus and relatively small size, Danone is potentially an attractive takeover target for its competitors, namely Nestlé and Kraft Foods. In mid-July 2005, the share price of Danone rose by 20% in two weeks on rumours of a bid approach by PepsiCo, although this intention was denied.[12] Upon realising that a takeover of a national champion such as Danone by a foreign company was indeed possible in the capital markets, the "economically patriotic"[13] French government stepped in by drafting a law to protect companies in "strategic industries" such as Danone[14] from takeover. This has been dubbed the "Danone Law"[15].
n 2004, the annual compensation of these individuals were: Franck
Riboud, €2,426,860, Jacques Vincent, €1,511,140, Emmanuel Faber,
€746,430 [2]
Evian, Volvic, Badoit, Aqua, Naya[2], Lanjarón, Font Vella, Villa del Sur .Villa Vicencio
Actimel, Activia, Blédina baby food, Danone, Royal Numico baby food brands including Cow & Gate
The acquisition of Royal Numico includes SHS International[19]. The brands include Ketocal (for the management of the ketogenic diet, Lophlex LQ (for the management of phenylketonuria, Neocate (for the management of cows milk allergy) and Alicalm (for the management of Crohn's disease).
See also
- List of French companies
- Yoplait, another popular yoghurt brand.
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BRITTANIA BISCUITS
RENT $20
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| Type | Private |
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Britannia Industries Limited is an Indian company based in Kolkata that is famous for its Britannia and Tiger brands of biscuit, which are highly recognised throughout the country. Britannia is India’s largest biscuit firm, with an estimated 38% market share.[1]
The Company's principal activity is the manufacture and sale of biscuits, bread, rusk, cakes and dairy products.
The Britannia's fame is largely acknowledged through the colourful Britannia logos that Indian cricketers such as Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid wear on their bats.
It was started way back in 1892 with an investment of Rs. 295.[2] Initially, biscuits were manufactured in a small house in central Kolkata. Later, the business was acquired by the Gupta brothers and operated under the name of V.S. Brothers.
In 1918, C H Holmes, an English businessman in Kolkata was taken as a partner and The Britannia Biscuit Company Limited (BBCo) was launched. The Mumbai factory was setup in 1924 and Peak Freans, UK acquired a controlling interest in BBCo. Biscuits were in big demand during World War II, which gave a fillip to the company’s sales. The company name was changed to the current Britannia Industries Limited in 1979. In 1982 Nabisco Brands Inc., USA became a major foreign shareholder.
Kerala businessman K. Rajan Pillai secured control of the group in the late 1980s, becoming known in India as the 'Biscuit King'. In 1993, the Wadia Group acquired a stake in ABIL, UK and became an equal partner with Groupe Danone in Britannia Industries Limited. In what the Economic Times referred to as one of [India's] most dramatic corporate sagas,[3] Pillai ceded control to Wadia and Danone after a bitter boardroom struggle,[4] then fled his Singapore base to India in 1995 after accusations of defrauding Britannia, and died the same year in Tihar Jail.[5]
Its main competitors are Nestle India, and the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB),and amul(GCMMF)[7]
Joint venture with New Zealand Dairy
On 27 October 2001, Britannia announced a joint venture with Fonterra Co-operative Group of New Zealand, an integrated dairy company from procurement of milk to making value-added products such as cheese and buttermilk.[7] Britannia planned to source most of the products from New Zealand, which they would market in India.[6] The joint venture will allow technology transfer to Britannia.[7] Britannia and New Zealand Dairy each holding 49% of the JV, and the remaining 2 per cent held by a strategic investor. Britannia has also tentatively announced that its dairy business would be transferred and run by the joint venture.[7]
The authorities' approval to the joint venture obliged the company to start manufacturing facilities of its own. It would not be allowed to trade, except at the wholesale level, thus pitching it in competition with Danone, which had recently established its own dairy business.[7]
The company's factories have an annual capacity of 433,000 tonnes.[1] The brand names of biscuits include VitaMarieGold, Tiger, Nutrichoice Junior,Good Day, 50 50, Treat, Pure Magic, Milk Bikis, Good Morning, Bourbon, Thin Arrowroot, Nice and many more.
Tiger, the mass market brand, realised $150.75 million in sales including exports to countries including the U.S. and Australia, or 20% of Britannia revenues in 2006.
The company alleged that Danone has violated its intellectual property rights in the Tiger brand by registering and using Tiger in several countries in 2006 without the consent of the Britannia Board. Managing Director Vinita Bali claims the company found out in 2004 Danone launched the Tiger brand in Indonesia in 1998, and later in Malaysia, Singapore, Pakistan and Egypt when it attempted to register the Tiger trademark in some of these countries.[8] Whilst it was initially reported in December 2006 that agreement had been reached,[9] it was reported in September 2007 that a solution remained elusive.[8] In the meantime since Danone's biscuit business has been taken over by Kraft, the Tiger brand of biscuits in Malaysia has been renamed Kraft TiGER Biscuits beginning September 2008.
Britannia initiated legal action against Danone in Singapore in September 2007.[10]
n June 2006, Wadia claimed Danone had used the Tiger brand to launch biscuits in Bangalore.[14]
After a prolonged legal battle, Danone has finally agreed to sell its stake in Britannia and get out of this line of business. Danone will sell its 25.48% stake to Leila Lands, which is a Wadia group entity based in Mauritius. The deal is valued to be at $175-200 m. With this buy-out, Wadia's will hold a majority stake of 50.96%.[18]
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Wahaha Joint Venture
Rent $35
- This article refers to the Sino-French joint venture. For the Chinese holding company, please see Hangzhou Wahaha Group
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| Type | private |
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The Wahaha Joint Venture Company is a food and beverage joint venture company established between the Hangzhou Wahaha Group, the largest beverage producer in China,[1] and Danone, one of the world's largest food conglomerates.
Founded in 1987, Hangzhou Wahaha Group Co. Limited was originally a sales company owned by the government of Hangzhou's Shangcheng District. From its creation, Zong Qinghou has led and grown the business, exercising control over the day-to-day operations. In 1995, Peregrine Investments Holdings introduced Zong to Danone, and discussions about joint ventures began. A joint venture agreement was signed on 28 March 1996.[10] Major parts of the drinks business were injected into the joint venture, and Zong became its chairman whilst remaining the managing director of the holding and operating companies. In the melée of the company's transformation from a state-owned enterprise to a private company, Zong became an important minority shareholder.[11]
Joint venture holding structure
The foreign partners took 51%, while the Chinese partners held 49% (of which WHH holds 39% and employees own 10%).[10]
Groupe Danone and Peregrine together invested US$70 million in return for the stake in five joint venture WHH companies.[1] The holding was held through a Singapore registered entity called Jinjia Investments Co (金加投资公司), the board of which consisted of two Danone representatives, and Francis Leung Pak-to (梁伯韬) from Peregrine.[12]
In April 1998, just before the news of Peregrine's collapse broke, Leung was replaced on the board by a third representative from Danone.[12] Although a transfer of shares in the WHH companies would have required State approval under the rules in force at the time for protecting state assets, the shares in Jinjia were not covered. When Peregrine collapsed, and transferred its Jinjia shares, Groupe Danone became majority owner.[12] Zong has alleged that this transfer of ownership was a bad-faith takeover by stealth.
The Hangzhou Wahaha Food and Beverage Sales Co. (杭州娃哈哈食品饮料营销有限公司) "WHHFBSC", registered on 19 December 2006, is an external company allegedly now the centre of a parallel distribution network.[14] 10% of its share capital is held by Zong's wife, Shi Youzhen, and 90% by Zong's personal vehicle Ever Maple Trading Ltd., registered in the British Virgin Islands. Its legal representative is Zong's daughter Zong Fuli.[14]
Zong set up non-jv owned factories, such as the Hangzhou Xiushan Shunfa Packaging Co. (杭州萧山顺发食品包装公司),[14] to manufacture or pack products identical to WHH. Danone further alleges that dealers were asked to set up new bank accounts for their deposit payments in the name of WHHFBSC to sell products from these factories.[15]
- 12 July, lawyers representing Danone hold press conference accusing Zong of using forgery to set up offshore companies
- 9 November, the High Court of the British Virgin Islands placed Golden Dynasty Enterprise Ltd, Gold Factory Developments Ltd, Platinum Net Ltd, Sunworld Enterprises Ltd, Great Base International Ltd, Bountiful Gold Trading Ltd, Ever Maple Trading Ltd and Wintell Enterprises Ltd. into receivership and froze their assets[29]
- 14 November (or 21?), Mega Source Investments Ltd and Honour Bright Investments Ltd, were frozen and put into receivership by the Supreme Court of Samoa[29]