On 16 May, Fonterra announced a proposal to divest itself of all production and marketing of consumer goods. This took most people linked to the dairy industry, including me, by surprise.
If the proposal is fully implemented, then Fonterra will in future only produce ingredients. Some of these ingredients will be sold to food-service entities and the rest will be sold as commodities.
In marketing language, Fonterra will be exclusively a B2B (business to business) entity with nothing that is consumer-facing. Fonterra calls it a step-change but it is more than that. It is a U-turn.
All of Fonterra's brands would be divested.
Fonterra's New Zealand and international brands include Anchor, Fernleaf, Mainland, Chesdale, Fresh'n Fruity, De Winkel, Perfect Italiano, Western Star, Anlene, Anmum and others. TipTop used to be Fonterra's ice-cream brand but that was sold in 2019 at a time when Fonterra had balance-sheet problems.
The proposed divestment also includes the sale of three consumer processing plants in New Zealand, nine processing plants in Australia and five plants in South East Asia.
No comments:
Post a Comment