American food giant General Mills is pulling out of the North American yogurt market. In a $2.1 billion (C$2.9 billion) deal announced Thursday, the maker of Cheerios, Häagen-Dazs and Pillsbury is selling its yogurt business to two French companies: Lactalis in the United States and Sodiaal in Canada.
Canadian operations include the Yoplait and Liberté brands, acquired by General Mills in 2011 and 2012 respectively. This is a return home for Yoplait, created by six French cooperatives in 1965 and first launched in Canada in 1971. Liberté was founded in Montreal in 1936.
This separation of North American activities, however, raises “question marks,” believes Maryse Côté-Hamel, professor of consumer science at Laval University.
“When you have a larger territory, when you have economies of scale to the extent that the supply chain is more concentrated, you have the capacity to better manage the different stages, the different intermediaries […] Nobody has a crystal ball, but it could potentially impact prices upwards because economies of scale can tend to disappear.”
No details on Saint-Hyacinthe
Sodiaal also took over the Liberté plant in Saint-Hyacinthe and its 200 employees. When asked about the fate of the plant, the company did not provide any details.
“At this point, we cannot release any more information than what was shared via press release,” an email sent to The PressThe growth project supported by Sodiaal requires the mobilization of women and men committed to promoting the dairy industry.”
“With the Canadian teams, we will continue to develop internationally, improving our position thanks to healthy, tasty dairy products that are accessible to consumers,” said Antoine Collette, CEO of Sodiaal, in a press release.
As for Yoplait yogurts, they are manufactured as a subcontractor at the Aliments Ultima plant in Granby. This facility has belonged to Lactalis Canada since its acquisition in 2021 from Agropur.
For General Mills, this transaction, which must be approved by regulatory authorities and is expected to close in 2025, allows it to focus on “brands that have stronger growth prospects and more attractive profit margins,” it explained in a press release.
For fiscal year 2024, the North American yogurt market generated revenues of US$1.5 billion for General Mills.
As for Sodiaal, the largest dairy cooperative in France that is still relatively unknown in Canada, it had already acquired the rights to the Yoplait brand in Europe in 2021. “Yoplait and Liberté products are particularly popular with Canadian consumers, who have appreciated French dairy expertise and the cooperative’s know-how since 1971,” Sodiaal states in a press release. Sales of fresh dairy products in Canada amounted to CAN$1.9 billion in 2023, it states, “offering strong growth potential for Yoplait in this region.”
Yoplait’s annual turnover in Canada (including Liberté brands), as of May 26, 2024, is estimated at 500 million.
“This project confirms the return of Yoplait to the cooperative, a true national heritage brand that is the pride of our farmer members and our employees,” declared Jean-Michel Javelle, President of Sodiaal, in a press release. “This acquisition strengthens our presence in the world and promotes our French dairy expertise, appreciated across the Atlantic.”
The Reuters news agency had already reported last April that General Mills had approached the bank JPMorgan Chase in order to attract potential buyers for its yogurt brands.
The French preserve
In Canada, Lactalis owns the Iögo, Olympic, Astro, siggi’s and Stonyfield brands, among others. Danone owns Activia and Danone. Maison Riviera, which belongs to the French cooperative Alsace Lait, produces Riviera yogurt. The Yoplait and Liberté brands are now part of Sodiaal.
For Maryse Côté-Hamel, Sodiaal will have to take care to adapt its offer to Canadian consumers, even if the French company is already associated with Yoplait. “There is always a risk to know if their know-how is transferable,” notes the professor from Laval University. Even for Yoplait, the products sold in Europe are very different from what we find in Canada. They are not the same names, they are not necessarily the same recipes.” Yogurts based on “an Icelandic recipe,” in milk cartons, with cane sugar, “there are a lot of things that we will not find on the market here,” she indicates.
Sodiaal in brief
- Formed in 1964, Sodiaal is the largest French dairy cooperative, with 20% of milk collected.
- It has 15,300 producers on 8,523 farms, spread across 72 departments.
- In addition to milk, Sodiaal sells cheese (Entremont, Monts & Terroirs, les Fromageries Occitanes, Blamont), Candia brand cream and butter, and dairy ingredients such as Eurosérum. It has 53 manufacturing sites in France employing some 9,000 people.
- For the financial year ended March 31, 2024, revenues were €5.8 billion (CAD 8.7 billion), up 5.9% from the previous year.