General Mills is indeed selling its North American yogurt business but in two parts: the U.S. business going to French dairy products firm Lactalis and the Canadian business to Sodiall – the French dairy cooperative Big G bought it from 47 years ago. Price for both pieces is $2.1 billion.
The divestitures includes such brands as Yoplait, Liberté, Go-Gurt, Oui, Mountain High and :ratio, as well as manufacturing facilities in Murfreesboro, Tenn., Reed City, Mich., and Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec. Collectively, the North American yogurt business contributed approximately $1.5 billion USD to General Mills’ fiscal 2024 net sales.
While General Mills never announced the business was for sale, the first rumors surfaced in April. Sodiaal, the current name for the group of French dairy farmers who started Yoplait in 1964, sold the North American rights to General Mills in 1977, and in 2021 General Mills acquired a 51% stake in Yoplait from Sodiaal and private equity firm PAI Partners.
Lactalis has been busy building a North American presence. It first established a beachhead with the 2011 purchase of Parmalat’s Canadian business. Since, it has bought Siggi’s and Stonyfield yogurts and, in 2022, Kraft-Heinz’s considerable cheese business. We estimate sales North American sales at $9.5 billion and globally at $31 billion.
The proposed transactions are expected to close in calendar 2025, subject to receipt of requisite regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. General Mills says it expects to use the net proceeds from the transactions for share repurchases.
“Today’s announcement represents another significant step forward for General Mills in advancing our Accelerate strategy and our portfolio reshaping ambitions,” said Chairman and CEO Jeff Harmening. “Upon completion of these divestitures, we will have turned over nearly 30% of our net sales base since fiscal 2018.”
