The world milk giant Lactalis announced this Thursday that it has exceeded 28,000 million euros in turnover in 2022, dethroning Danone from the chair of the French leader in the food industry. The group behind President camemberts, Galbani mozzarella, Leerdammer cheese with holes or even Parmalat milk, thus joins the world’s top 10 in the food industry.
The other French giant Danone, now eleventh worldwide, generated almost 27,700 million in turnover in 2022. Nestlé, the world number one, exceeds 95,000 million euros in turnover.
The activity of Lactalis, which has remained a family business since its creation in 1933 in Laval, grew strongly last year (+28.4%) to 28.3 billion euros, driven by the increase in the sale price of its products but also inflated by its recent acquisitions, notably some of the Kraft (excluding Philadelphia) brand cheeses, popular in North America, and Leerdammer.
22.6 billion liters of milk
At the same time, its profitability fell, with a net profit of 384 million euros (-14% in one year), in the absence of being able to fully pass on “the high inflation of our costs” (milk, packaging, energy, etc. .), the head of the group, Emmanuel Besnier, said at a press conference in Parma, Italy, the fourth largest market for Lactalis behind France, the United States and Canada.
The Besnier company, which became Lactalis in 1999, has come a long way since the 35 camemberts produced on the first day at the Laval cheese factory by founder André Besnier. The unlisted company became a global dairy giant through acquisitions, first in France in the 1970s and 1980s, then internationally.
In 2022, Lactalis transformed 22,600 million liters of milk into cheese, yogurt, butter, cream… And its turnover has more than quintupled since 2000, the year in which Emmanuel Besnier, ‘André’s grandson, took over. Lactalis now has 270 production sites in 51 countries and 85,000 employees. Its products are marketed in 150 countries.
Source: BFM TV
