Bega Dairy & Drinks

Lion Dairy & Drinks Australia Pty Ltd

Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Food & Beverage
Founded	1991
Headquarters	Docklands, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Area served	Australia New Zealand Asia
Key people	Peter West (Managing Director - LD&D)
Products	Dairy & Juice
Revenue	A$2.00 billion (2015)
Owner	Kirin Holdings Co. Ltd
Parent	Lion
Divisions	LD&D Milk and LD&D Foods
Subsidiaries	Dairy Farmers & others
Website	https://www.lionco.com/about-us/our-business/lion-dairy-drinks

Lion Dairy & Drinks (LD&D Milk Pty Ltd and LD&D Foods Pty Ltd) formerly known as "National Foods", is a major dairy company in Australia, a subsidiary of parent Lion which itself is owned by the Japanese company Kirin Holdings Co. Ltd.

It specialises in dairy food and juice, with core activities in milk, yoghurt, cream, dairy desserts, juice and specialty cheese.

Founding

National Foods was created by the Adelaide Steamship Company in 1991 by amalgamating several dairy and food related businesses with brand names and histories dating back to the 19th century.

Kirin Holdings (via then "National Foods") also acquired the Dairy Farmers company in 2008. "Dairy Farmers" was kept as a brand.

• LD&D's processing factories are located at Chelsea Heights in Melbourne, Baulkham Hills in Sydney, Morwell in Victoria, Hexham in New South Wales, Booval in Brisbane, Jervois in South Australia, Clarence Gardens in Adelaide, Bentley in Western Australia and in Canberra. As well as the Warnambool Cheese Factories ("Coon" Cheese) in Simpson and Allansford in VIC.

The company is a major milk producer in Australia with its flagship Pura brand. It is also a major juice producer and a leader in the fresh dairy products market. As of 2007, National Foods has almost half the national flavoured milk market with brand Big M, and Farmers Union Iced Coffee has the unusual distinction of being one of only three soft drinks to outsell Coca-Cola in its market-place. National Foods also manufactures yoghurt, fromage frais, dairy desserts, cream and cheese under brands that include Yoplait, Frûche, Divine Classic, YoGo and Farmers Union. The company also produces a range of premium speciality cheeses under brands such as King Island Dairy, South Cape, Tilba, Timboon and Clover Creek.

Acquisition and merger

San Miguel Corporation entered a bidding war for National Foods with New Zealand's Fonterra in 2004. National Foods board unanimously accepted the San Miguel Corporation offer. In 2005 San Miguel acquired National Foods for $1.8 billion. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission had earlier signed off on San Miguel Corporation's various Australian acquisitions, noting "there is no overlap between San Miguel's different activities in Australia and hence no change likely to the different markets in which these businesses operate." National Foods had earlier sold its juice business to Berri Ltd. After their acquisition National Foods regained 100% ownership of Berri Ltd. in December 2005. The two operations began the merger process soon afterwards. Following the merger, National Foods became the largest citrus and fruit processor in Australia, packaging approximately 50% of all fruit juice beverages sold in Australia. This led to National Foods having 3500 employees and 20 processing plants around Australia and New Zealand, with seven milk plants, five juice plants, four speciality cheese plants, a cheese packaging plant, two dairy foods plants and a joint venture soy beverage plant.

On the 8 November 2007, San Miguel Corp. sold National Foods to Kirin Holdings Co. (which had a 20% stake in San Miguel) for $3.1 billion, National Foods became a wholly owned subsidiary of Kirin. In 2008 National Foods acquired Australian dairy company Dairy Farmers and in 2009, when Kirin Holdings acquired Lion Nathan, National Foods and Lion Nathan were merged to create "Lion Nathan National Foods" (San Miguel no longer had any working relations with Australia).

In 2011, "Lion Nathan National Foods" separated into two divisions - Lion and Lion Dairy & Drinks.

Brands

LD&D's core brands are: Pura (milk), Dairy Farmers (milk - NSW/QLD), Big M (flavoured milk), Farmers Union (flavoured milk, including Iced Coffee, yogurt), Masters (flavoured milk), Moove (flavoured milk), King Island Dairy (cheese), Tasmanian Heritage (cheese), Yoplait (yogurt), Dairy Farmers (yogurt), Berri Ltd. (juice), Daily Juice (juice), Vitasoy (Soy Milk, Oat Milk, Rice Milk). It produces these products from a total of 24 major facilities (19 in Australia, 1 in New Zealand, 2 in Malaysia, 2 in Indonesia).

Company milestones

• 1991 - Listed on Australia Stock Exchange;
• 1992 - Acquired NSW dairy company United Dairies;
• 1994 - Acquird Masters Dairy in Western Australia;
• 1995 - Secured Australian license for French brand Yoplait. Sales of Yoplait brand started in the following year;
• 1999 - Pura brand became Australia's first and only national milk brand;
• 2000 - Acquired Big M brand;
• 2001 - Acquired King Island Company. Entered into speciality cheese market;
• 2002 - Won first national supermarket house brand milk contract;
• 2005 - Acquired by San Miguel Corporation; San Miguel subsidiary Berri Limited merged with National Foods;
• 2006 - Acquired speciality cheese manufacturer Lactos Pty Ltd;
• 2007 - Acquired by Kirin Holdings Company, Limited;
• 2008 - Planned acquisition of Dairy Farmers (as Australian Co-operative Foods Limited)
• 2009 - Kirin Holdings gained shareholder approval to acquire 100% of Lion, creating "Lion Nathan National Foods"
• 2011 - Lion Nathan National Foods becomes Lion and Lion Dairy & Drinks.

Industrial relations

In early October 2009, National Foods gave evidence at an Australian Senate inquiry into milk prices; the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association (TFGA) is concerned because National Foods was paying Tasmanian farmers only 29 cents a litre for milk, about 10c/L below the amount it costs to produce the milk.

External links

• National Foods Website