Danone aims to triple the size of its plant-based business by 2025

Danone has revealed it plans to triple the size of its plant-based business by 2025 by combining its position in the dairy industry with the high plant-based growth potential.

By accelerating its non-dairy beverage and yogurt offering, the France-headquartered company seeks to grow plant-based sales from €1.7 billion to around €5 billion.

Last month, Danone formed the Plant-Based Foods of Canada lobbying organisation alongside other plant-based food companies to advance the interests of the plant-based foods sector in the country.

At an investor seminar held in London, the maker of Activia and Volvic also said it is targeting €1 billion savings by 2020.

The announcement comes a week after Danone revealed its third-quarter net sales shrank by 4.4% due to the poor performance of its infant formula unit in China and a consumer boycott in Morocco.

The company said that after 12 months of exceptional growth in China, its sales are contracting in the short term “amid changes in infant milk formula market dynamics”. It now aims to position its strategy towards faster growth areas, by seizing the opportunities emerging from evolving lifestyles and needs from an ageing population.

Danone CFO Cécile Cabanis said: “In an increasingly volatile environment, we are very pleased with the enhanced resilience of our operating model, delivering good results. Given short-term headwinds, including in our early life nutrition business in China, the path to 2020 will not be linear.

“We continue to strengthen our business model to accelerate throughout 2019 and 2020, towards our objectives, in order to deliver consistent EPS growth and create sustainable shareholder value.”

Emmanuel Faber, Danone CEO, added: “At the occasion of this Danone investor seminar in London, we are pleased to share with the financial community our good progress towards building a company uniquely positioned to embrace the food revolution. We are developing our unique portfolio of health-focused and purpose-led Manifesto brands, acting as a catalyst for consumer reach.

“Our growth strategy focuses on valorised innovations to address some of the fastest-growing trends, notably among the younger generations. We continue to make our organisational model more efficient by empowering our people and fostering engagement. Our strategic priorities remain to accelerate growth, maximise efficiencies, and allocate capital with discipline.”