Name Danone was founded by
Isaac Carasso (born İzak Karasu), a
Thessaloniki-born
Sephardic Jewish physician from the
Ottoman Empire, who began producing traditional
yoghurt in
Barcelona, Spain in 1919. The brand was named Danone, which translates to "little Daniel", after his son
Daniel Carasso. In 1929, Isaac Carasso moved the company from
Spain to
France, opening a plant in
Paris. In 1942, Daniel Carasso moved the company to New York. In the United States, Daniel Carasso partnered with the Swiss-born Spaniard Juan Metzger and changed the brand name to Dannon to sound more American. In 1951, Daniel Carasso returned to Paris to manage the family's businesses in France and Spain, and the American business was sold to
Beatrice Foods in 1959; it was repurchased by Danone in 1981. In Europe in 1967, Danone merged with Gervais, the leading fresh cheese producer in France, and became Gervais Danone. In 1973, the company merged with bottle maker Boussois-Souchon-Neuvesel (BSN), which was formed by the merger of Glaces de Boussois, France's 2nd-largest producer of flat glass, with Lyon-based Verreries Souchon-Neuvesel, France's top producer of bottles and jars. Souchon-Neuvesel, based in the Lyon region, produced bottles, industrial containers, flacons and table glassware (container glass). Glaces de Boussois, located in northern France, made windows for the building and automobile industries (plate glass). Three years earlier BSN had merged with
Evian,
Kronenbourg, Société Européenne de Brasseries and
Blédina. The company changed its name to Groupe Danone in 1983. In 1973, the company merged with Gervais Danone and began to expand internationally, including a rebranding of the Dannon yogurt brand in the U.S. and a successful ad campaign
In Soviet Georgia that started in October 1976. In 1979, the company abandoned glassmaking by disposing of Verreries Boussois. In 1987, Gervais Danone acquired European biscuit manufacturer
Générale Biscuit, owners of the
LU brand, and, in 1989, it bought out the European biscuit operations of
Nabisco, The operation included UK manufacturers
Huntley and Palmers,
Peek Frean, and
Jacob's, which had previously merged to form Associated Biscuits Ltd. In 1994, BSN changed its name to Groupe Danone, adopting the name of the group's best-known international brand. Franck Riboud succeeded his father, Antoine, as the company's chairman and chief executive officer in 1996 when Riboud senior retired. Under Riboud junior, the company continued to pursue its focus on three product groups (dairy, beverages, and cereals) and divested itself of several activities which had become non-core including
Amora,
Liebig, and
Maille brands. of
Paris-Saclay,
France, photographed in 2014 In 1999 and 2003, the group sold 56% and 44% respectively of its glass-containers business.
21st century In 2000, the group also sold most of its European beer activities (the brand
Kronenbourg and the brand 1664 were sold to
Scottish & Newcastle for £1.7 billion. Its Italian cheese and meat businesses (
Egidio Galbani Spa) were sold in March 2002; as were its beer producing activities in China. The company's British (''Jacob's'') and Irish biscuit operations were sold to
United Biscuits in September 2004. In August 2005, the Group sold its sauces business in the United Kingdom and in the United States (
HP Foods), in January 2006, its sauces business in Asia (
Amoy Food) was sold to
Ajinomoto. Despite these divestitures, Danone continues to expand internationally in its three core business units, emphasising health and well-being products. In July 2007, it was announced that Danone had reached agreement with
Kraft Foods Inc (now
Mondelēz International) to sell most of its biscuits division, including the LU and Prince brands but excluding Latin American (
Bagley) and Indian (
Britannia Industries) units, for around €5.3 billion. In 2007 Danone spent 12.3 billion euros on the purchase of the baby and medical nutrition business of Dutch rival
Numico. The share of Unimilk was 21% of the Russian market. Danone was to hold 57.5 percent of the capital; it funded the acquisition by writing put options for Unimilk share owners. In 2009 Unimilk sales revenue was 969 million euros. As of the merger, Unimilk had 28 facilities in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. The united Danone-Unimilk company had 18,000 employees in the
Commonwealth of Independent States. The
Wockhardt group's nutrition activities in India were acquired by Danone in 2012. In mid-February 2013 Danone announced its intention to cut 900 jobs or about 3.3 percent of its 27,000 person European workforce. Since 2013, Danone has grown on the African continent, notably with the acquisition of a controlling interest in Centrale Danone in Morocco and equity interests in Fan Milk in West Africa and Brookside in Kenya. On 1 October 2014,
Franck Riboud stepped down as CEO of the company and was succeeded by
Emmanuel Faber. Danone was present in 130 markets and generated sales of US$25.7 billion in 2016, with more than half in developing countries. In 2015, fresh
dairy products represented 50% of the group's total sales, baby food 22%, branded water 21%, and medical nutrition 7%. In 2017,
Franck Riboud became honorary chairman and Faber became chairman as well as retaining his CEO position. In late 2020, the entry of the London-based
hedge fund Bluebell Capital as a shareholder of Danone put Faber’s position into question. In a letter sent to all shareholders in November 2020, they qualified Danone's stock market performance under Faber of overall "disappointing", arguing that "the right balance between shareholder value creation and sustainability issues" had not been struck under his tenure. After the publication of only slightly comforting 2020 results and disappointing first trimester turnover figures, Bluebell Capital's activism paid off and Faber was ousted in mid-March 2021. On May 16, 2021, the arrival of
Antoine Bernard de Saint-Affrique as the next CEO of Danone was announced, to be effective on September 15. In 2023, Danone Manifesto Ventures, the venture-capital arm of Danone invests in Israel cell-based dairy and infant-milk producer Wilk. In July 2023 after the
Russian invasion of Ukraine had put multinational businesses in a delicate position, Russia seized control of Danone Rossiye, putting it under "temporary management" of the state. In February 2024 it was rumoured that
Ramzan Kadyrov or his nephew
Yakub Zakriev would take over the unit, for under $200 million. this opened the way for a sale of the unit. In May 2025, Danone announced the acquisition of a majority stake in the American company Kate Farms, which specializes in medical nutrition, for an undisclosed amount. ==Corporate governance==