Danone

Groupe Danone (Euronext: BN, NYSE: DA) (known as Dannon in the United States) is an international food products company with its central headquarters in Paris, France. It specialises in dairy products, and it is especially famous for its yoghurt. It owns the brands Volvic, Evian (mineral water), Badoit (mineral water), Naya / Naya Waters (Canadian bottled water aquired in 2000), Lattella, Actimel/Activia (dairy products), and LU.

It was founded in 1919 by Isaac Carasso in Barcelona (Spain) as a small factory producing yoghurt. The name of the factory was chosen to be "Danone" as a diminutive of the name of his first son, Daniel (DAN-ONE).

Ten years later, the first French factory was built, but during WWII, Daniel moved the company to New York, where Dannon Milk Products Inc. was founded. In the United States, Daniel changed the brand name to Dannon to sound more American. Then in 1958, the company returned to Paris, where its headquarters are located today.

The popularity of Dannon shot up in the United States in the 1970s partly due to the In Soviet Georgia television advertisements which aired for many years.

As a result of recent campaigns for fatless yoghurt, in Spain cuerpo Danone ("Danone body") has become a slang term for a model-like, meagre, muscular body.

Danimals yoghurt is a dairy product marketed for children, advertised as calcium-enriched and to strengthen bone development in children.

Dannon Frusion is a smoothie that is meant to replace some breakfast foods. It is a lowfat yoghurt in the form of a drink.

PepsiCo, Inc. is rumoured to plan a hostile takeover of Danone. Because of a poison pill a new ownership must have at least 66% of the capital for its vote rights to go beyond 12%. Since the actual management hard kernel has only 14% it is not impossible.

Corporate governance

Current members of the board of directors of Groupe Danone are: Bruno Bonnell, Richard Goblet d'Alviella, Michel David-Weill, Emmanuel Faber, Jean Laurent, Hirokatsu Hirano, Bernard Hours, Christian Lauble, Hakan Mogren, Jacques Nahmlas, Benoît Potier, Franck Riboud, and Jacques Vincent.

In 2004, the annual compensation of these individuals were: Franck Riboud, €2,426,860 (euros), Jacques Vincent, €1,511,140, Emmanuel Faber, €746,430 ^[1].

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Corporate governance

See also

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