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Royal FrieslandCampina has announced plans to reorganise its business structure from January 2027, combining its European retail activities and reshaping its international operations in a move designed to strengthen customer service, improve agility and enhance category management.

The dairy cooperative said it intends to integrate the European retail activities currently housed within its Europe and Retail & Americas business groups, subject to employee participation procedures and works council consultation. The changes are scheduled to take effect on 1 January 2027.

According to FrieslandCampina, the proposed integration will bring together its branded and private-label operations across Europe, enabling the company to serve customers more effectively while leveraging greater scale and expertise across the region.

Jan Derck van Karnebeek, CEO of Royal FrieslandCampina, said: “With this step, we aim to organise our European activities in a simpler and more customer-centric way. By bringing our retail activities closer together, we can better serve customers, respond faster to market opportunities and make better use of our scale and expertise, while continuing to create value from member milk.”

As part of the wider restructuring, FrieslandCampina also plans to transfer its Americas operating company from the Retail & Americas business group to the Middle East, Pakistan & Africa division. The move will create a newly named business group: Middle East, Pakistan, Africa & Americas.

The changes will reduce FrieslandCampina’s business group structure from seven divisions to six.

Under the proposed new structure, the Europe business group will continue to be led by Dustin Woodward, currently president Europe, while the newly expanded Middle East, Pakistan, Africa & Americas division will be headed by Tuncay Özgüner, currently president Retail & Americas.

The company also confirmed that Ali Khan, currently president Middle East, Pakistan & Africa, has decided to retire. FrieslandCampina thanked Khan for his leadership and contribution to the business and wished him success in his retirement.

The dairy group said further details regarding the organisational impact of the restructuring will be communicated at a later date. The proposed changes have been submitted to the works council for consultation as part of the formal decision-making process.