With $50 million worth of new equipment and renovations in place at its Boucherville, Que. yogurt plant, Danone Canada now plans to handle all its own production of its DanActive dairy drink for the Canadian market.
The move, officially announced Tuesday, shifts some DanActive production north from the French multinational dairy firm’s Dannon facilities in the U.S.
The Canadian production is expected to require “several million litres of milk” per year from domestic dairy farms, the company said. A spokesperson wasn’t immediately available for comment Tuesday to provide specifics.
Read Also
U.S. livestock: Cattle strength continues
Cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange were stronger on Friday, hitting fresh highs to end the week.
The company said DanActive’s move to Boucherville follows studies it conducted, aimed at gauging Canadians’ interest toward its probiotic yogurt drinks.
“After completing our analysis, we’re proud that DanActive will be produced in Canada by local workers using local products,” Danone Canada CEO Louis Frenette said in the company’s release.
The new equipment meant an expansion of 25,500 square feet at the plant, now occupying 223,000 square feet in the Montreal suburb. The plant also now operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the company said.
The project’s $50 million cost included $2 million in support from provincial economic development agency Investissement Quebec, the company noted.
Franck Riboud, CEO for the Paris-based Danone Group, said the consolidation of the company’s work in Boucherville “reaffirms the place that Quebec and Canada have in the growth of the Danone Group. We’re firmly established here and are proud to contribute to the area’s economic and social development.”
Yogurt products have been made at Boucherville since 1968 by the Quebec company Delisle, which became part of the Danone Group in 1993 and was dubbed Danone Canada in 1997.
Danone bills its DanActive line of beverages as “probiotics,” a health claim covering a group of products containing bacteria to help defend the human body defend against gastrointestinal diseases, diarrhea and other “non-intestinal” infections.
On top of the Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus found in most yogurts, DanActive is promoted as containing Lactobacillus casei, displayed on the product label under the trademark “L. casei Defensis.”
The product was first launched in Europe in 1994 under the brand name Actimel, and came to North America in 1997. DanActive became a target in a U.S. class action suit the following year, alleging misleading health claims.
Danone later changed its labeling and marketing for its DanActive and Activia brands and settled the California-based suit in September last year for US$35 million in product refunds.
