Brandtree

When did Lactalis buy and sell its brands?

Lactalis has completed 5 recorded acquisitions and 0 divestitures or spin-offs, spanning 2006 to 2026.

DateTypeAssetsCounterpartyValue
Aug 2026announcedAcquisitionCathedral City, Wensleydale Creamery, Davidstow and Clover +1Saputo£988m
Mar 2026AcquisitionAnchor, Mainland, Anlene and Anmum +3FonterraNZ$3.85bn
Jan 2018AcquisitionSiggi's—Undisclosed
Aug 2017AcquisitionStonyfield OrganicDanone$875m
Jul 2011AcquisitionParmalat—Undisclosed
Apr 2006AcquisitionGalbani—Undisclosed

2026

Acquisition announced

Lactalis acquires Cathedral City, Wensleydale Creamery, Davidstow, Clover and Country Life

Saputo agreed to sell its United Kingdom operations, Saputo Dairy UK, to Lactalis for an enterprise value of about £988 million. The business includes Cathedral City, the best-selling cheddar in Britain, along with Davidstow, Wensleydale, Clover and Country Life, which Saputo gained with Dairy Crest in 2019. Coming months after Lactalis bought Fonterra's Anchor and Mainland, it would make the French family group the owner of the leading British cheddar as well.

Value
£988m
Seller
Saputo
Regulatory
None recorded
Acquisition closed

Lactalis acquires Anchor, Mainland, Anlene, Anmum, Kapiti, Perfect Italiano and Western Star

Fonterra sold its entire global consumer business to Lactalis, agreeing the sale in August 2025 for NZ$3.845 billion and completing it on 31 March 2026; resolving a separate dispute with Bega Cheese took total proceeds to NZ$4.22 billion. It moved a century of New Zealand household dairy brands, Anchor and Mainland among them, to a French family company in a single transaction, and turned Fonterra into a business-to-business supplier that now sells milk and ingredients to the buyer of its own brands under agreements running at least ten years. Fonterra kept the Anchor consumer brand in Greater China.

Value
NZ$3.85bn
Seller
Fonterra
Regulatory
None recorded

2018

Acquisition closed

Lactalis acquires Siggi's

Lactalis acquired Siggi's, an American skyr maker founded by an Icelandic immigrant who could not find yoghurt as thick or as low in sugar as the one he had grown up with. The price was not disclosed and only the year is documented here.

Value
Undisclosed
Seller
—
Regulatory
None recorded

2017

Acquisition closed

Lactalis acquires Stonyfield Organic

Lactalis acquired Stonyfield Farm from Danone for about $875 million. Danone was selling because American antitrust authorities required it to divest Stonyfield as a condition of completing its purchase of WhiteWave Foods, so this acquisition exists only because of a remedy imposed on another deal in this dataset.

Value
$875m
Seller
Danone
Regulatory
None recorded

2011

Acquisition closed

Lactalis acquires Parmalat

Lactalis took control of Parmalat through a public tender offer at EUR 2.60 per share, gaining the Italian dairy group that had collapsed in 2003 in what was then the largest corporate fraud in European history. The Italian government objected to a national champion passing into French hands and briefly changed takeover rules in response.

Value
Undisclosed
Seller
—
Regulatory
None recorded

2006

Acquisition closed

Lactalis acquires Galbani

Lactalis acquired Galbani from the private equity firm BC Partners, buying the largest cheese brand in Italy and with it a position in mozzarella and mascarpone that its French portfolio lacked. The price was not disclosed by the parties.

Value
Undisclosed
Seller
—
Regulatory
None recorded

Lactalis acquisitions on a timeline

Timeline of completed acquisitions by Lactalis

Full chart with a text equivalent, free to republish with attribution.

Brands Lactalis once owned

Ownership recorded here as having ended, whether or not a deal record with a filing behind it exists for the transfer.

BrandOwned fromUntilOwner today
Sorrento — Apr 2024 not recorded