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Danone has launched a global strategic partnerships programme in hopes of cultivating stronger relationships with its global partners. The initiative, called "Partner for Growth," spans from start-ups and scale-ups to corporates and academic institutions. Danone said that the programme will transform how Danone collaborates with its partners by strategically harnessing opportunities "based on consumer trends and insights to support mutual growth". Danone Manifesto Ventures, the company’s corporate venture arm, will also contribute by helping bring high-potential emerging brands, concepts or capabilities to the market. The programme begins with three new partnerships and a joint business plan signed with bioscience company Chr. Hansen. The plan will enable Danone to "push boundaries" of innovation within the dairy and plant-based sectors by using Chr. Hansen's bio-solutions expertise and "leveraging both companies’ extensive culture collections," stated the French company. Danone said "Partner for Growth" is focused on four “interconnected strategic pillars” that will unlock growth for the company. The Activia brand owner envisions a potential in emerging fields of science and technology, where the business can uncover "breakthroughs" in ingredients, agriculture, processes and packaging. In addition, Danone is focusing on precision capacity creation, which involves enhancing the flexibility of its assets by strategically integrating the appropriate technologies, ensuring supply security and collaborating with global and local partners to "better predict and respond to customer needs".

Furthermore, Danone says it is committed to achieving cost competitiveness by using digital technology and collective understanding of its end-to-end value chain to enhance operational efficiency, minimise waste and optimise logistics, while prioritising sustainability through initiatives that increase the health benefits of Danone's brands, including decarbonising operations across the entire value chain and promoting responsible practices with employees, communities and partners. Vikram Agarwal, COO at Danone, said the programme is “a structured, holistic and mutually beneficial approach to transform the way we work with partners, to take advantage of short-term opportunities and prepare our brands and categories for sustainable growth in the long-term". He added: "It will help us leverage more from our supplier and partner ecosystem to drive shared business growth rather than using a traditional linear approach. It’s how we’ll stay ahead of emerging trends, serve our customers and consumers better and unlock sustainable growth.” Isabelle Esser, chief research, innovation, quality and food safety officer at Danone, commented: “Through close collaboration with our partners, we can explore new horizons related to product superiority, new technologies in fermentation and decarbonation and find new solutions that benefit us, our partners, consumers and the planet.”