Lactalis agrees to acquire German milk processor Omira for undisclosed sum

Omira’s products include milk, cheese, yogurt and a lactose-free line called MinusL. © Omira

French dairy company Lactalis has agreed to acquire German dairy producer Omira for an undisclosed amount.

The milk processor has an output of more than 830 million kilograms of milk a year, as well as a range of products that includes UHT milk and dairy-based desserts. It is also a leading producer of lactose-free products with the brand Omira MinusL.

Lactalis will inherit Omira’s two facilities in Neuberg an der Donau, near Ingolstadt, and Ravensburg in southern Germany. It will also guarantee the milk price for Omira’s 2,600 suppliers for the next ten years.

The acquisition comes at a good time for Omira, which will have invested approximately €60 million in its two production sites by 2020. The cash injection will help it to increase the efficiency, flexibility and output of the plants in Ravensburg and Neuberg.

It settles speculation that Omira was looking for a big-name takeover, with Emmi and Arla previously mooted as possible buyers.

For Lactalis, it represents an opportunity to increase its sales in Germany – understandably Europe’s largest milk producer, as it has a higher population count than any other country on the continent and a larger total count of dairy cows.

Lactalis – usually quite secretive about its financials – turned over €16.5 billion in 2015, with Europe accounting for 65% of sales.

The company processed 15.6 billion litres of milk in the same year, with its product mix divided between 32% cheese, 25% liquid milk, 13% yogurts and desserts, 13% dairy ingredients, 10% butter and cream, and the remaining 7% accounted for by other products.