- “Partner for Growth” program identifies and develops partnerships to seize consumer trends to unlock growth opportunities for both Danone and its partners.
- Three new partnerships and one joint business development plan were signed with the ambition to triple their number by the end of the year.
Partner for Growth program will drive greater innovation and efficiencies to unlock sustainable growth, from new product ideation to the moment it is in the consumers’ hands.
Danone aims to expand and strengthen its relationships with partners from across the world, spanning start-ups and scale-ups, to corporates and academic institutions.
The program is transforming the way that Danone works with its partners by strategically seizing opportunities based on consumers’ trends and insights to support mutual growth. Danone Manifesto Ventures, the company’s corporate venture arm, will also contribute as it helps bring high potential emerging brands, concepts, or capabilities to the market.
The program starts with three new partnerships, and one joint business development plan signed with bioscience company Chr. Hansen. This new plan will enable Danone to push boundaries of innovation in the dairy and plant-based categories by using Chr. Hansen’s leading bio-solutions capabilities and leveraging both companies’ extensive culture collections.
Partner for Growth is focused on four interconnected strategic pillars that will unlock growth for Danone and its chosen partners:
- Emerging science and technology: exploring and discovering breakthroughs across ingredients, agriculture, processes and packaging that will shape the future of food to meet consumer needs.
- Precision capacity creation: making its assets more flexible and smarter, combining the right technologies, supply security and global and local partners to better predict and respond to customer needs.
- Cost competitiveness: using digital technology and collective understanding of our end-to-end value chain to drive efficiencies, reduce waste and optimize logistics.
- Sustainability: driving performance and purpose through initiatives that increase the health benefits of Danone’s brands, decarbonise operations across the entire value chain, or help us operate more responsibly with employees, communities and partners.
Vikram Agarwal, Chief Operating Officer at Danone, commented: “Anticipating and seizing opportunities is at the heart of the Renew Danone strategy, and is what Partner for Growth is all about. A structured, holistic and mutually-beneficial approach to transform the way we work with partners, to take advantage of short-term opportunities and prepare our brands and categories for sustainable growth in the long-term. It will help us leverage more from our supplier and partner ecosystem to drive shared business growth rather than using a traditional linear approach. It’s how we’ll stay ahead of emerging trends, serve our customers and consumers better and unlock sustainable growth.”
Isabelle Esser, Chief Research, Innovation, Quality and Food Safety Officer at Danone, said:
“Since its origins, Danone has innovated with others to bring consumers and patients healthy food and water fuelled by over a century of ground-breaking nutrition, hydration and fermentation research. Together with suppliers and partners that share our ambition to design and offer superior products to consumers and patients across the world, it is time to step up! Through close collaboration with our partners, we can explore new horizons related to product superiority, new technologies in fermentation and decarbonation and find new solutions that benefit us, our partners, consumers and the planet.”
Mauricio Graber, CEO at Chr. Hansen, said: “At Chr. Hansen, we innovate by unleashing the power of good bacteria. However, only in partnership can we truly transform the food system enabling healthier living around the globe. That is why we welcome Danone’s invitation to work even closer as partners on this important agenda.”
As part of the program, Danone this week hosted an exclusive, in-person event with 50 suppliers at its new innovation center in Paris Saclay. At the event, Danone’s leadership team shared the growth plans for each of Danone’s core categories with potential partners and celebrated existing Partner for Growth partnerships, including:
- Arla Food ingredients for supplying speciality dairy ingredients.
- Breakthrough Fuel for their transportation solutions.
- McCarty Family Farms for pioneering regenerative agriculture practices with Danone.
- Circulate Capital for projects to increase plastic collection and create plastic recycling capabilities.
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