Lactalis buys Nestlé’s chilled dairy business in Malaysia
Lactalis is looking to move in to the Malaysian market as part of its drive to cover all dairy categories on five continents. Lactalis said it plans to establish Malaysia as the operations hub of its dairy business in ASEAN with plans to drive growth through an expanded portfolio of new products.
The deal, worth a reported $37.4m, will be effective January 1, 2019.
The sale will include the manufacturing of chilled dairy products and packing of milk powder at the Petaling Jaya factory.
Investing in MILO
In turn, Nestlé is investing $24m in its MILO factory in Chembong, Negeri Sembilan.
To facilitate this, Nestlé Malaysia will be moving all existing MILO manufacturing operations from its Petaling Jaya (PJ) Factory to consolidate and expand MILO production at the Chembong Factory.
Alois Hofbauer, CEO of Nestlé (Malaysia) Berhad, said, “Nestlé remains positive on the Malaysian market and Malaysia as an export hub and we look forward to unlocking more growth opportunities in the future.
“We see great potential that these investments will allow us to strengthen our focus on strategic core businesses that can deliver good long-term growth and are aligned with evolving consumer needs. At the same time, this initiative will pave the way for the Chilled Dairy business and PJ factory to flourish under the new leadership of Lactalis.”
The purchase follows the earlier acquisition by Lactalis of the Stonyfield organic yoghurt brand from Danone and the purchase of US-based Icelandic yogurt company, siggi’s.
