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Groupe Lactalis S.A.
Lactalis makes and sells dairy products — milk, cheese, yogurt, and butter — under brands people buy in supermarkets around the world.
Lactalis is one of the world's biggest dairy companies, a French giant that turns milk into the cheese, yogurt, butter, and drinking milk you find in grocery stores. You may not know the name on the front of the box, but there's a good chance you've eaten something it made. Its best-known brands include Président cheese, Galbani (Italy's biggest cheese brand), Parmalat milk, and Stonyfield yogurt in the US.
The business is simple at its core: Lactalis buys raw milk from farmers and turns it into everyday foods that people buy week after week. It sells mostly through supermarkets and grocery chains, and it owns its own brands rather than just making store-label products. That brand ownership matters, because it lets Lactalis charge a bit more and keeps customers coming back. It also gives the company a lot of power when negotiating shelf space with retailers. Lactalis is privately held, owned by the Besnier family, which means it doesn't have to answer to stock market investors every quarter. That has allowed it to grow aggressively by buying up other dairy companies — dozens of them over the years. One of its biggest moves was buying Parmalat, the Italian milk and dairy group, in a deal completed in 2011. The company's roots go back to 1933, when André Besnier started a small cheese-making business in Laval, in western France. His son Michel built it into a global player, and today it operates in dozens of countries.
Dairy is a tough business. Milk prices are volatile, and big retailers squeeze suppliers hard on price. Lactalis has leaned on its scale and its brand portfolio to stay profitable, but it has also drawn criticism — French regulators fined it in 2020 over anti-competitive practices, and a major infant formula contamination scare in 2017 forced it to recall products across many countries. Still, the family's long-term grip and its appetite for acquisitions have made Lactalis a quiet powerhouse that most shoppers have never heard of, even as they eat its cheese.
Saved answer · last researched 10 Nov 2026