Our division
Dairy
Our Dairy division in some key figures
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farmer members, including 2,800 in conventional cow's milk, 350 in organic cow's milk, 600 in goat's milk and 40 in organic goat's milk
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processing sites in France and abroad
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countries offer markets for our brands
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employees
A presence in France and abroad
Combined with effective brand and innovation strategies, the persuasive strength of our co-operative values are the key factors driving the steady and sustained growth of our Dairy sector. With a presence concentrated in superstore retailing and food service throughout Europe, our Dairy sector is now developing into large-scale exports. In 2023, 37% of Dairy division annual revenue was generated in international markets.
Our dairy processing network includes 23 sites in France and 5 sites in Spain, Belgium, USA and Italy, with products sold through 5 sales and marketing operations in Europe, USA and the Middle East.
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28
processing sites
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130
countries offer markets for our brands
Processing milk to produce consumer products
As a multi-specialist, our Dairy division adds value to the milk produced by our farmer members by processing it to create the full range of dairy products, from cow’s milk cheese and goat’s milk cheese to ultra-fresh dairy products, ingredient cheeses, UHT milk, butter and cream. We market our products to superstore retailers, the food service industry and food manufacturers.
Our French market-leading brands include Soignon for standard and ultra-fresh goat’s milk cheese, Maestrella for pizza topping cheese supplied to the food service market (also No. 3 in Europe), and Grand Fermage for speciality butters. We also lead the market for retailer-branded ultra-fresh products, and continue to pioneer the IQF (individually quick-frozen) process for cheese (offering a wide range of frozen cheese slices and cubes).
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23
milk and cheese dairies across France
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7
certified organic processing sites
Expertise in Ingredients & Nutrition
Our Ingredients & Nutrition business leverages its extensive experience and expertise to design and market successful functional and nutritional solutions. We offer food manufacturers and nutrition specialists a broad range of speciality dairy ingredients.
With an operating presence in more than 90 countries, our Ingredients & Nutrition business develops high nutritional value products for markets as diverse as sports, infant, senior, clinical and wellness nutrition; all share the same aim of providing dietary supplements and/or a better balanced diet
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4
dedicated Ingredients & Nutrition production sites in France
Milk production and collection
Our Dairy division tanker drivers collect milk from our farmer members across a large swathe of rural France, including Lower-Normandy, Pays de la Loire region, Brittany, Aquitaine-Limousin-Poitou-Charentes, Centre-Val de Loire and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions. That means collecting no fewer than 2.36 billion litres of milk every year, of which 159 million litres are goat’s milk and 131 million litres are organic cow’s milk.
Our dairy advisers and technicians support our farmer member milk suppliers to help them maximise the financial and environmental performance of their farms, and work together to ensure milk food safety from the earliest stage of the production process.3
We support our farmer members on a daily basis, through good farming practices such as those deployed by our Grand Fermage brand, whether they produce conventional or organic cow’s milk, or goat’s milk. Because to make good goat’s milk, you need healthy goats… but you also need farmers to take care of them! As a co-operative, we support our breeders in their vocation to perpetuate our goat breeding traditions.
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2.36
billion litres of milk collected in 2023
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96%
of our goat's breeder farmer member are committed to the Soignon Good Farming Practices Charter
Herbignac focuses on a more sustainable energy mix
Installed in 2013, this biomass boiler has allowed us to diversify the energy mix of our Herbignac plant to favour energy sources whose prices are less volatile and are not indexed to fossil fuels by replacing natural gas with a local renewable resource produced and sourced within a 100 km radius from sustainably managed forests. As a result, this site is now carbon neutral, and has a much lower level of exposure to fossil fuel related CO2 quotas and associated taxes.
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63%
biomass and 37% gas: the Herbignac energy mix in 2021
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70,000 MWh
per year, equivalent to 2/3 of site demand for steam
Sector brands
Explore the Dairy division brands that provide millions of consumers and food service professionals with daily supplies of delicious dairy products.
