Lactalis hopes to see LaDorna grow by 10 percent this year

Three years after taking over the LaDorna dairy producer from Romanian businessman Jean Valvis for an estimated EUR 100 million, Lactalis Romania announced that the business has had a positive development since, against a declining market.

“Perhaps shareholders would have wanted double or triple growth, but the business has had a positive evolution on what is a downward market,” said Dorel Radu, managing director of Lactalis Romania since 2010.

Last year the company registered a EUR 40 million turnover and hopes to see an increase of about 10 percent in 2011 while for the next year it estimates to grow by between 5 and 10 percent. The main developing directions will continue to be UHT milk and white cheese which together account for more than 80 percent of the company’s total sales.

Since the takeover by French giant Lactalis, LaDorna has increased its share on the local UHT market by ten percent, to 40 percent presently. It is also the second player on the white cheese segment, and together with Hochland and Friesland covers 30 percent of the market.

Another stated objective is to increase the volumes of the LaDorna organic dairy products which were launched back in 2005. In the past three years Lactalis has invested “millions of euros” in the local production facilities, and will continue upgrading them, said the company.

There are about 800 employees working for the LaDorna Group presently compared to approximately 1,000 in 2008. The company presently has five production units in Romania – four in the Vatra Dornei area and a fifth unit in Constanta county at Kogalniceanu. Lactalis has closed a factory earlier this year relocating production in Poland.

It presently processes 60 million liters of milk yearly compared to 50 million liters in 2008, all of it coming from local farmers, said Lactalis. Currently, it imports 2 percents of the products it sells in Romania.