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Danone, a new leading player
Last update april 2010
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The acquisition of Numico in 2007 positioned Danone as the European market leader in medical nutrition. The division generated sales of €0.925 billion in 2009, an 11.4% increase over the previous year based on like-for-like data. As medical nutrition products meet the needs of vulnerable people often undergoing treatment or convalescing, this segment has the unusual characteristic of being relatively unaffected by the crisis. Developed to prevent malnourishment and improve the day-to-day lives of consumers, their functional benefits take on paramount importance and therefore require very extensive research, unremitting communication with healthcare and regulatory authorities and a special distribution system.
The science of nutrition was long overlooked and underdeveloped and now has shown that the sick and elderly have special nutritional needs that cannot be met by traditional adult diets. Medical nutrition has emerged as the most attractive segment in the food industry today. In 2009, the Medical Nutrition division maintained its energetic growth and achieved increased market shares in most countries where Danone operates. Sales were primarily divided between Europe (80%), where the group holds a leading position with the Nutricia, SHS and Milupa brands, and Asia (6%), where China and exports to countries in Southeast Asia were major contributors to the division’s growth in 2009.
Danone began developing a single-brand strategy on the medical nutrition market, examples being Nutricia, Neocate, Fortimel and Respifor. The year 2009 also served as confirmation of steady success in the most recently entered markets, like China, but also Brazil, Argentina, and certain countries in the Middle East, which added to the division’s growth.
