French dairy company Lactalis has taken a major step forward in expanding its presence in Africa after the company’s buy- off of the Cairo-headquartered Greenland Group for Food Indus- tries from Americana Group. Lactalis’ other brands, however, are available across much of fran- cophone Africa.
The acquisition was made through Lactalis’ joint-venture operation, Lactalis-Halawa (which was founded in 1997). No details have been released on the deal value in the statement issued by the company.
Lactalis-Halawa already dis- tributes dairy products under the Président, Lactel, Teama, Nestlé and Celia brands in Egypt. It oper- ates in the cheese, chilled dairy, milk (UHT and fresh), juices and infant nutrition categories.
Greenland has five dairy produc- tion sites in Egypt, employing 1,250 people. All its factories are in 10th of Ramadan City, which is 60km northeast of Cairo. Its primary focus is cheese, and the company also processes ghee, milk, juices and fresh dairy products such as sour cream and labneh.
Apart from Egypt, Lactalis has a representative office in the Republic of Congo and an office in Togo. A contamination problem badly dented sales of its infant nutrition products in Africa in late 2017 leading to a widespread product recall. In September 2018, Lactalis bought South African pharmaceutical company Aspen Pharmacare’s infant nutrition business for $940m.
“The acquisition was driven partly by a need to rebuild its presence in the infant nutrition sector,” said the statement.