Danone goes to counterattack

SAO PAULO-the world's largest yoghurt maker, Danone is not used to being behind. After launching in Brazil, in 2004, the Activia, product that has revolutionized the market in the country, the French multinational has lost the tram in the race for the Greek yogurt: only managed to launch its in March this year-eight months after competitors like Force and Nestlé have released this category in the domestic market. Now, the French go to the counterattack.
Arrives on Monday, 23, at the supermarkets a new product, which required an investment of r $ 120 million-the largest ever conducted by Danone in Brazil in four decades and also the most expressive done by multinational this year in the world. The technology needed for the production of yogurt was not available in Brazil, says the Argentine Mariano Lozano, President of Danone dairy area in the country, which should earn $ 2 billion this year. We had to bring out equipment and adapt our plant. The recipe requires three times more milk than a traditional yogurt Danone.
Although it has no appeal to Greek, the origin of the new brand, named Danio, is somehow connected to this category of yogurts, characterized by having a firmer consistency and a more pronounced flavor. Here, the Greeks account for approximately 4% of the sale of yoghurts. In the u.s., they must represent more than half of sales already next year. There, who began production of Greeks, in 2007, was the rookie Chobani-company created by a Turkish businessman who was a supplier of Danone.
The formula developed by him, with more protein and less fat, was absolute success in the United States. To compete with Chobani, Danone has created the Oikos in 2011. In the American market, the Greek yogurt has status of snack and dessert, as it has in Brazil and in Europe, says Lozano. This causes the consumption is much higher. The formula, he said, is different because the milk passes through a process of concentration, which raises the protein content and increases satiety.
The Danio, being released today, is a Brazilian version of the Greek yogurt that revolutionized the American market. The brand already exists in Poland and England, but the formula is slightly different, to adapt to the pattern of consumers in each country. In Brazil, for example, the yogurt is sweeter.
Without any allusion to Greece, packing Danio brings in highlight the phrase Kills your hunger. The idea is to sell the product as an option the biscuits and cereal bars consumed at meals. The Greek yogurt is a marqueteira invention, the President says Danone.
Brazilian competitors ears by the newspaper O Estado de s. Paulo debunks the version that the formula of Danio and the manufacturing process are innovators in the domestic market. But without knowing the industrial secrets of each is hard to take this doubt.
The new product should help the Brazilian operation of Danone to achieve the goal of doubling in size every four years. Still, he's not tipped to take the place of the sales leaders, Activia and Yogurt. The information is from the newspaper O Estado de s. Paulo.