Verde Campo is 50%-owned by the Coca-Cola Company.
In Brazil, Coca-Cola partner Leão Alimentos e Bebidas has reached an agreement to acquire dairy company Laticínios Verde Campo for an undisclosed sum.
The deal represents the first time that the Coca-Cola Company has entered the Brazilian dairy segment and follows shortly after the announcement that it would enter India’s pure dairy segment with the launch of a non-carbonated version of its Vio milk-based beverage. It also extends Coca-Cola’s move towards healthier beverage options.
Leão Alimentos e Bebidas is a partnership between Coca-Cola, which owns a 50% stake, and its bottling partners in the country.
Its takeover of Verde Campo has already been approved by Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defence (CADE) and could be completed in the first quarter of next year.
Minas Gerais-based Laticínios Verde Campo manufactures cheeses and yogurts and is best known for its LacFree brand of lactose-free products.
Alexandre Icaza, founder of organic online supermarket Organomix, was quoted by Brazilian news magazine Veja as saying: “Demand for lactose-free products has grown fairly among our customers, not only among people with lactose intolerance but also in the general population, which is increasingly looking to eat healthily and found that the LacFree products are more easy to digest.”
Terms of the acquisition have not been publicly disclosed.
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024