Agropur Doubles U.S. Dairy Processing with Davisco Purchase

Jul 22, 2014

Agropur, Canada’s largest dairy company, will increase its U.S. processing capacity by 50 per cent with a deal to buy the dairy processing assets of Davisco Foods International.

The purchase price was not disclosed. But the company did say that it will finance the acquisition using existing cash resources and new credit providers.

“With over US$1 billion in annual sales, this acquisition is by far the largest transaction in Agropur 76 year history,” Serge Riendeau, president of Agropur said in a release.

Agropur also bought Sobeys, Safeway’s milk, yogurt and ice cream manufacturing operations in Western Canada for $356 million. The sale included a plant in Edmonton and one in Winnipeg and another in Burnaby, B.C.

The acquisition announced Tuesday, will add cheese processing operations in Le Sueur (Minnesota), Jerome (Idaho) and Lake Norden (South Dakota), an ingredients plant in Nicollet (Minnesota), plus sales offices in China, Singapore, Geneva and the Netherlands.

Privately held Davisco of Minnesota employs approximately 900 workers, and produces more than 170 million kilograms of cheese and 80 million kilograms of cheese and why products annually. Quebec-based Agropur cooperative is owned by more than 3,500 dairy farmers. It processes 3.4 billion liters of milk each year in its 32 plants across Canada and the United States.

Dairy product brands under the Agropur banner include: Natrel, Québon, OKA, Farmers, Central Dairies, Sealtest, Island Farms, Agropur Grand Cheddar, Olympic and iögo

The deal is expected to close August 1, 2014.

Video: New colours and more durability for Case IH RB6 round balers

Farmers will see a new look and more efficiency and durability from Case IH's RB6 Series variable chamber round balers for model year 2026. In this report from the Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Illinois, Case livestock product specialist Brian Williams notes that the first thing farmers will notice is a new colour scheme. "For the tailgate, the frame, and also the pickup, we've changed to our Case IH red colour. One of the really nice things about changing that colour scheme is that you're able to see that crop flowing into the baler much better from the tractor." There's also changes to the pickup with the addition of a second roller. "On the 566 model, you can get it with the double windrower roller," says Williams. "For our customers that are baling corn stalks or large windrows, it helps to push that windrow down to let that feed into the chamber, so that they're able to bale a little bit faster, because everyone's looking for better efficiency." There are also modifications to the rollers in the bale chamber — the stripper roll and the fixed roll have been combined into a one-piece roller. "There's no welds on those rollers, so the dependability is going to be far greater than our previous model," adds Williams.