Glanbia Sells Irish Yoplait Franchise Back to Brand Owner

Under a new agreement, Glanbia will continue to distribute the Yoplait branded products and provide field sales support through its Consumer Products business based in Dublin.

21 May 2012 --- Yoplait S.A.S. has agreed to directly operate its chilled yoghurt and desserts business in Ireland, reacquiring the franchise rights to its Yoplait brands and products from its licensee, Glanbia plc.

Glanbia will sell the Yoplait franchise for Ireland back to Yoplait for cash considerations. Under a new agreement, Glanbia will continue to distribute the Yoplait branded products and provide field sales support through its Consumer Products business based in Dublin. Yoplait will progressively take over responsibility for production, marketing and account management in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

A new company, Yoplait Ireland Ltd., based in Dublin, has been formed to operate the business. The transaction was effective on May 13.

In March 2009, Yoplait also regained full ownership of its U.K. operations from its former U.K. partner, Dairy Crest.

Under the new agreement Yoplait will reacquire the franchise for Ireland back from Glanbia for €18 million. Glanbia will continue to distribute the Yoplait branded products and provide field sales support through its Consumer Products business based in Dublin. Yoplait will progressively take over responsibility for production, marketing and account management in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Regrettably as a consequence of this decision production will cease at the Glanbia’s facility in Inch, Co. Wexford.

While Glanbia has held the Yoplait franchise for the manufacture and sale of the brand in Ireland since 1973, the decision to move away from the franchise model recognises the current challenging Irish retail
environment.

Colin Gordon, CEO Glanbia Consumer Products said today; “This agreement to reconfigure the relationship with Yoplait will enable Glanbia Consumer Products to focus on ongoing innovation and the development of our core beverage and food brands, such as Kilmeaden Cheese, Avonmore, Premier and our other fresh milk brands. Regrettably this decision will result in approximately 50 redundancies. We recognise this is a difficult time for all those impacted and will be consulting with employee representatives in the period ahead.”

Glanbia milk suppliers in the region will have their milk collected as normal for processing at another Glanbia facility. Glanbia processes 1.6bn litres of milk at facilities in Ballyragget, Virginia, County Cavan, Ballytore, County Kildare and Drogheda, County Louth.