Arla Foods & Green Meadows Foods Sign Letter of Intent

Green Meadows Foods, LLC is a new cheese manufacturing facility with a startup capacity to process 2.5 million pounds of milk per day, which includes plans to accomplish an expansion capability to 5.0 million pounds per day in the near future.

02/03/09 Green Meadows Foods, LLC and Arla Foods have signed a letter of intent to form a definitive partnership. The purpose of the partnership is to develop the whey stream coming from Green Meadows Foods newly opened cheese facility in Hull, Iowa.

By combining the strengths of the two companies, this partnership is poised to become a leader in the North American protein market:

Green Meadows Foods (GMF) will provide high quality milk/whey raw materials. Arla Foods will provide its leading edge product/process technology and will sell and market all products produced by the partnership.

Green Meadows Foods, LLC is a new cheese manufacturing facility with a startup capacity to process 2.5 million pounds of milk per day, which includes plans to accomplish an expansion capability to 5.0 million pounds per day in the near future.

Sjerp Ysselstein, President of Green Meadows Foods, said, “we feel this strategic move to partner with Arla Foods will position us well into the future as a leading milk processor in the important I-29 corridor. By combining our state of the art operation with Arla’s process technology and marketing abilities, we will achieve our goals to move away from the commodity whey business. In addition, it provides a roadmap to accomplish our capacity expansion plan.”

With this partnership, Arla Foods will solidify its position as a global market leader in whey and will provide a strong basis for further growth.

“Applying our global whey concepts to the American market and establishing a local partnership will provide significant new opportunities for us. It is, in many ways, a natural step for Arla Foods, and it is a step we have been working hard for several years to make. The American market is approximately 50% of the global whey protein market and we are now entering with a strong partner”, says Senior Vice President of Arla Foods Henrik Andersen.

The intent of the partnership is that Arla will acquire 100% of the whey processing assets in Green Meadows Foods, and Arla will operate this facility as an integral part of its global supply of highly specialized whey products. It is expected that definitive agreements can be signed during the 2nd quarter 2009.

Arla Foods is one of the largest dairy companies in Europe and one of the largest cooperative dairies in the world. Arla’s recently announced five-year strategy increased focus on the company’s whey protein business as well as emphasis on the US market. The partnership with Green Meadows Foods fits well into these overall strategic ambitions.