Why Fonterra accepted defeat in the dairy aisle
OPINION: Fonterra's sale of its consumer dairy business to Lactalis is a clear sign of the co-operative’s failure to compete in the branded consumer market.
Within the past two months two of its largest processors have gone bust.
While milk remains a household item in the US, people are simply drinking less of it, Dean Foods Co said in its November bankruptcy filing. “The decline in dairy sales has occurred in conjunction with the rise of oat, nut, soy and other alternative ‘milk’ products at retailers and food service locations across the country.”
Circumstances were so similar that Borden Dairy Co. used the same language almost verbatim in court papers recently to describe its predicament.
