GROUPE Danone, the world’s biggest yoghurt maker, sees the US as an emerging market ripe for expansion, CEO Franck Riboud said on Friday.
While the US is the world’s most industrialised economy, pockets of it — such as the potential yoghurt market — remain underdeveloped. American per- capita consumption of yoghurt is just 6kg, while in France it is 30kg.
The company has shown it is possible to create a market for yoghurt. In the 12 years it has operated in SA — in a joint venture with local company Clover — per- capita consumption here has risen from 1,2kg to 6kg.
“The US, for us, is an emerging country,” Mr Riboud said in an interview at the official launch of Danone Southern Africa in Johannesburg. “We want to (increase sales) from 1bn to 3bn.”
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