FDBusiness.com

Lactalis has agreed to acquire siggi’s – the US-based maker of Icelandic style skyr yogurts with ‘simple ingredients, not a lot of sugar’ – for an undisclosed price. The deal further expands the French dairy giant’s yoghurt platform in the US.

Siggi’s was founded by Siggi Hilmarsson, who, after moving to the US from his native Iceland, began making yogurt in his kitchen in response to American yogurt, which he found too sweet and full of extra ingredients. The recipe was based on skyr, the Icelandic style yogurt Siggi grew up eating in his native Iceland. With seed investment from his former professor, Siggi started selling his yogurt at an outdoor market in downtown Manhattan in 2006. It is now the fastest growing yogurt in conventional grocery. Siggi’s is a top 5 selling yogurt brand in many mainstream grocery chains including Stop & Shop, Meijer and Publix and recently became the #1 selling yogurt brand overall in Whole Foods.

Siggi’s will continue operating out of its New York City office and will remain a standalone company under its current senior leadership team, which includes its founder as CEO, and Bart Adlam as President.

“We’re excited to join the Lactalis family which offers the opportunity to further fuel our growth,” says Siggi Hilmarsson. “Our core values of clean ingredient label and less sugar will remain 100 percent unchanged. Consumers everywhere are actively trying to reduce sugar in their diets so our offering has a global relevance.”

Bart Adlam adds: “Siggi’s topline grew 50% in 2017 and we expect to match this in 2018 as we launch further innovations. We are excited to keep the momentum going with support from the largest dairy player in the world.”

The Lactalis family group is the world’s largest dairy company, employing more than 75,000 people in 85 countries worldwide. Lactalis is active in all categories of the dairy market, and is the number one cheese manufacturer in the world. The Group’s prestigious brands include Président®, Galbani®, Parmalat®, Stonyfield Farm®, Bridel, Rachel’s Organic, and Skånemejerier

The deal entails Emmi, the Swiss dairy group, disposing of its 22% stake in siggi’s. While the parties have agreed not to disclose terms of the deal. Emmi expects – based on current estimations – that the positive effect of this transaction on its net profit of the financial year 2018 will be in the range of a mid two-digit million Swiss franc amount.

The United States remains Emmi’s largest foreign market. The majority of sales there are generated by the exports of Swiss cheese, as well as locally produced cow’s and goat’s milk specialties. Emmi will now focus its US business even more on niches like goat’s milk products (Cypress Grove, Redwood Hill Farm & Creamery, Meyenberg), organic, lactose free cow’s milk products (Green Valley Organic) , organic cows’s milk cheeses (Cowgirl Creamery) and speciality cheeses from Wisconsin and Switzerland (Emmi Roth USA).