FDBusiness.com

French and international dairy group Lactalis has extended its UK interests with the acquisition of Rachel’s Organic, the Welsh company best known for its organic yoghurt range, from US-based Dean Foods. Employing 140 people and with annual sales of about £30m, Rachel’s supplies more than 10 million pots of yoghurt a year and is the second largest organic dairy brand in the UK.

Rachel’s Organic was put up for sale with a price tag of around £20m last May as part of a major restructuring at Dean Foods. Rachel’s Organic was bought for £1.5m in 1999 by US dairy company Horizon Organic, which was later acquired by Dean Foods in 2004.

Lactalis significantly strengthened its UK business and its international cheese portfolio in 2005 with the acquisition of Glasgow-based McLelland Group, the third largest cheddar producer in the UK, for an undisclosed sum. Cheese accounted for almost half of Lactalis’s turnover of Eur8.5b in 2009, with 56% of sales generated beyond France.