French dairy giant Danone said it will invest 70 million euros ($76 million) in a new production line for tube-feeding products in France.
Approximately 60 million euros of the funding will be used to manufacture around 30 recipes of oral nutritional supplements from Danone’s Nutricia specialty nutritional range at the Steenfold plant in northern France.
The 110-year-old facility will produce around 20 million litres of medical nutritional supplements per year for Danone’s division that develops products for people with special medical needs.
Antoine de Saint-Afrique, CEO of Danone, said: “Nutritional needs change as people grow, age and face health challenges. At Danone, we believe we have a responsibility to help people across generations live the healthiest lives possible. We continuously innovate, invest and leverage our 125 years of expertise to develop products adapted to the growing nutritional needs of millions of patients around the world.”
“This investment is also aligned with our Renew Danone strategy and demonstrates our commitment to accelerating our adult medical nutrition product offerings to meet healthcare demands and serve more patients.”
Danone’s medical nutrition business is part of its broader “specialty nutrition” division, which also includes products for infants such as baby food and formula, and which the company says accounts for about 40% of the division’s sales.
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From GlobalData
As well as production lines, Danone will invest 10 million euros in new equipment at the Steenvoorde plant, including a biomass boiler that the group said will cut the plant’s carbon dioxide emissions by “almost 70 percent.”
The plant, which employs about 430 people, currently produces Danone’s specialised infant nutrition products, including the Galia and Bredina brands.
Danone’s full-year 2023 results showed sales at its Specialty Nutrition division rising 3.3% from 2022 to 8.5 billion euros ($9.1 billion). The unit reported a drop in recurring operating profit to 1.77 billion euros from 1.8 billion euros a year earlier.
In the first quarter of the year, the Specialty Nutrition division achieved net sales of €2.18 billion, up 1.9% compared to the same period last year.
Danone expanded its enteral nutrition offering earlier this month by signing a deal to acquire U.S. whole-food tube-feeding business Functional Formularies for an undisclosed price.
Last September, Danone announced investments in its medical nutrition division, spending €50 million to expand its factories in Poland and add production lines to its plant in Opole.
The following month, the owner of Activia yogurt invested €15 million in the expansion of a factory in Turkey that makes medical nutritional products. Soon after, the company expanded its product line for adults with special medical needs that it sells in China, adding the Fortimel brand to its local portfolio.
