Danone

Groupe Danone is a multinational food company based in Paris, France.

It holds strong positions in the global fresh dairy products market as well as the bottled water market through Danone Waters. Its brands include Actimel and Activia, Oikos, Evian and Volvic.

In the US, the Danone brand is marketed as Dannon under Danone North America, a subsidiary of the French-based company. It was briefly called DanoneWave following its merger with plant-based food company WhiteWave Foods, from which it inherited brands such as Silk and Alpro and which completed in April 2017.

The original company known as Danone was founded in 1919 by Isaac Carasso in Barcelona as a small factory producing yogurt. The factory was named Danone, a Catalan diminutive of the name of his first son, Daniel Carasso. Ten years later, the company moved from Spain to France, and the first French factory was built.

Today it is one of the world’s largest food manufacturers and a leader in both dairy and dairy alternatives, turning over close to €30 billion a year.