Dean Foods Company - Introduction

Introduction

2515 McKinney Avenue, Suite 1200
Dallas, Texas 75201-1978
U.S.A.
Telephone: (214) 303-3400
Fax: (214) 303-3499
Web site: http://www.deanfoods.com

Public Company
Incorporated: 1988 as Kaminski/Engles Capital Corp.
Employees: 26,000
Sales: $10.82 billion (2004)
Stock Exchanges: New York
Ticker Symbol: DF
NAIC: 311511 Fluid Milk Manufacturing; 311520 Ice Cream and Frozen Dessert Manufacturing; 311999 All Other Miscellaneous Food Manufacturing; 311421 Fruit and Vegetable Canning

Dean Foods Company, the largest processor and distributor of milk and other dairy products in the United States, is the product of Suiza Foods Corporation's December 2001 acquisition of the "old" Dean Foods Company, after which Suiza adopted the acquiree's name. Prior to the takeover, Suiza and the old Dean had been leading consolidators of the highly fragmented U.S. dairy industry, buying up dozens of mainly family-owned operations that were ripe for acquisition. By the time of the merger the two firms had grown into the two largest U.S. dairy companies. The "new" Dean Foods was a dairy giant, its Dairy Group generating nearly $9 billion in sales by 2004. Of this total, 55 percent was generated by more than 30 well-established local and regional dairy brands—including Broughton, Dairy Fresh, Dean's, Melody Farms, Nature's Pride, and Shenandoah's Pride—with the remainder coming from a variety of private label brands. National in scope if not in brands, Dean Foods' Dairy Group operates more than 110 plants from coast to coast, producing milk, whipping cream, coffee creamers, ice cream, yogurt, cottage cheese, sour cream, and other dairy products, as well as fruit juice, fruit-flavored drinks, and water. Dean's WhiteWave Foods Company subsidiary, meanwhile, produces and sells a range of soy, dairy, and dairy-related products under national brand names, including Silk soymilk and cultured soy products; Horizon Organic dairy products, juices, and other products; International Delight coffee creamers; Marie's refrigerated dips and dressings; Land O'Lakes fluid dairy and cultured products; and Hershey's milks and milkshakes (the latter two under license from Land O'Lakes, Inc. and Hershey Foods Corporation, respectively). Outside the United States, Dean's Leche Celta division is the fourth largest dairy processor in Spain and operates in Portugal as well. Dean Foods also owns a 27 percent stake in based Consolidated Container Company L.L.C., a leading producer of rigid plastic containers. In June 2005 Dean Foods spun off its former Specialty Foods Group, maker of pickles, non-dairy creamer, sauces, and salad dressings, into an independent, publicly traded firm called TreeHouse Foods, Inc.