Danone's profit benefits from Alpro acquisition

French dairy company Danone’s second quarter profit grew a lot, mainly thanks to its Whitewave Foods acquisition, which also owns Belgian Alpro.

Activia under pressure

The company’s growth is still slowing down, despite its higher profit. It only grew 0.2 % in the second quarter, up to 6.7 billion euro, but its volumes dropped 2.1 %.

Danone mainly struggles in North America and Europe, where turnover dropped 1.5 %. Its Activia brand is under continued pressure in Europe, despite its relaunch with new packaging and products.

“As expected, the slow start of the year is the result of specific emerging markets’ headwinds and challenges in Europe and in North America”, CEO Emmanuel Faber said.

Alpro did perform well and had another double-digit growth in the second quarter, compared to the year before. Its soy-based products sold well in every one of its markets, including the Benelux, the United Kingdom and Germany.

In part thanks to Alpro’s decent performance, Danone’s profit soared 16.3 % in the first half of the year, to 1.72 billion euro.