Groupe Danone
Danone is a multinational beverage and food company with headquarters in Paris. The company has offices in nearly 120 countries around the world. Around 81,000 employees generate an annual turnover of around 15.2 billion euros worldwide. In the U.S., the company operates under the brand names Dannon.
Company History
Danone was founded in 1919 in Barcelona ( Spain) by Isaac Carasso, the nephew of Thessaloniki influential Emmanuel Carasso. The name Danone is the Catalan diminutive of the name of his son Daniel. During the Second World War, the company headquarters was located in New York, in 1958 the company moved back to Paris, where he is today. 1967 the company merged with Gervais. Danone is now the second largest biscuit and milk producer in the world.
On 3 July 2007, the American multinational Kraft Foods announced a binding bid more than 5.3 billion euros for the global Kekssparte of Danone.
The pastry division with brands such as LU, Pim, Prince, Pepito and Mikado and Bolshevik (Russia), Opavia (Czech Republic) and Györ ( Hungary) is for 5.3 billion euros to the U.S. food giant Kraft Foods sells.
In return, Danone took over the Milupa manufacturer Numico.
2013, Danone acquired Happy Family, one of the largest U.S. manufacturer of organic baby food.
Danone in Germany
The Danone GmbH, headquartered in Haar near Munich in 2007 generated a turnover of 615 million euros and has a market share of 14.4 percent in Germany the market leader in fresh dairy products. In 2nd place followed by Müller- milk. Actimel is the most successful brand in the food retail sector in Germany in 2007. Activia has become the market leader in fruit yogurt and has the Ehrmann AG outdated. The Fruchtzwerge children are milk products market leader in Germany in the segment. The sister company Danone Waters Germany GmbH, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main distributes the still mineral water Volvic and Evian on the German market. With a market share of around 9 per cent, it is the market leader ahead of companies such as Nestlé, Gerolsteiner and Coca-Cola.
Brands
Among the brands of dairy products include Actimel, Activia, Danacol, Danette, Danone, Danonio, Dany, Essensis, Fruchtzwerge, Gervais and Vitalinea.
Its brands include in waters Aqua, Bonafont, Evian, Font Vella, Lanjaron, Ser and Volvic.
Among the brands in children's nutrition include Bledina, Cow & Gate, Dumex, Gallia, Mellin, Milupa and Nutricia.
Among the brands in medical foods include FortiCare, Fortimel, Fortisip, Infatrini, Neocate, Nutricia, Nutrini and Nutrison.
Criticism from consumer advocates
Grape fruit sweetness is a term that is used by Danone in the marketing of their product Fruchtzwerge. According to the manufacturer, " grape fruit sweetness (...) a thick juice, which is obtained from ripe grapes. It consists mainly of water, fructose and glucose. Grape fruit sweetness has a very special sweetening power. " Thus, it is nothing more than chemically invert (glucose - fructose ).
See consumer protection associations in advertising with grape fruit sweetener because of its identity with the sweetened with granulated sugar mislead the consumer. The grape fruit sweetness leads to the same extent as any other sweetness with sugar to dental caries and obesity. The Austrian Association for Consumer Information therefore raised against Danone in 2005 on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Consumer Protection complaint.
The consumer organization Food Watch announced in March 2009 that the yogurt drink Actimel Danone has the Golden puffs get 2009 for the " most audacious advertising lie of the year". More than 35,000 participants took part in the elections to the Golden puffs: 47 percent of participants considered advertising for Actimel as a supposed remedy for colds for the most egregious case of misnomer. " Actimel does not protect against colds - it strengthens the immune system just as good as a conventional natural yoghurt, but is four times as expensive and twice as sugary " said Anne Markwardt of Food Watch. Danone claims that the allegations were not true: Actimel activate proven defenses, the company said. "This is not substantiated in more than 30 scientific studies. " In Britain, commercials were banned for the product, since a positive impact on children's health are unproven.
Trivia
Camille de Toledo, actually Alexis Mital, grandson of the founder of Danone, a freelance writer ( "Capitalism is ugly " ), director and photographer and has the book Goodbye Tristesse (ISBN 978-3-932170-76-8 ) written.