Groupe Danone

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Danone factory in Bieruń, Poland

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 acquired 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.

Ten years later, the first French factory was built, but during WWII, Daniel Carasso moved the company to New York, where Dannon Milk Products Inc. was founded. In the United States, Daniel partnered with the Swiss-born Spaniard Joe Metzger and changed the brand name to Dannon to sound more American and to avoid any similarity in pronunciation to the name of the notorious gangster Al Capone. 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. A popular commercial was made in 2003 with a man exclaiming to "Trade in your breakfast for this Dannon Frusion Smoothie!" People exchanged such things as: Muffins, Doughnuts, and Banana.

The company operates the world’s largest yoghurt plant in Minster, Ohio USA which employs more than 400 people^[1]

1 Corporate governance
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] 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].

[edit] See also

Danone International Prize for Nutrition
List of French companies
Yoplait, another popular yogurt brand.

[edit] References

Neil R. Gazel, Beatrice: From Buildup Through Breakup. University of Illinois Press, 1990. ISBN 0-252-01729-3. Discusses the early history of Dannon in the US on pages 30ff.
Dannon entry from the Encyclopedia of Company Histories (at answers.com)

^ Sutherly, Ben (January 22). Where does our food come from? Often from a processing plant here in Ohio. Dayton Daily News. Retrieved on January 22, 2007.

[edit] External links

Groupe Danone Co.

Products: Actimel | Activia | Evian | Lattella | Volvic

Annual Revenue: $18.6 billion USD (12% FY 2004) | Employees: 89,449 | Stock Symbol: Euronext: BN NYSE: DA | Website: www.danonegroup.com

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