| Type | Public (NYSE: DF) S&P 500 Component |
|---|---|
| Industry | Agribusiness |
| Founded | 1925 |
| Headquarters | Dallas, Texas |
| Key people | Gregg L. Engles, CEO & Chairman of the Board Jack F. Callahan Jr., Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President Joseph Scalzo, President/Chief Executive Officer of Whitewave Foods Michael H. Keown, President of Indulgent Brands - Whitewave Foods Harrald Kroeker, President of Direct Store Delivery Group |
| Products | Milk, Dairy Products |
| Revenue | USD $12.5 billion (2008)[1] |
| Operating income | USD $608 million (2008)[1] |
| Net income | USD $184 million (2008)[1] |
| Employees | 25,585 (November 13, 2008) |
| Website | www.deanfoods.com |
Dean Foods (NYSE: DF) is an American food and beverage company with two operating divisions: Fresh Dairy Direct and WhiteWave-Morningstar.[2] The company maintains plants and distributors in the United States and the United Kingdom. Dean Foods products are sold throughout the USA.[3]
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In 1925, Samuel E. Dean purchased the Pecatonica Marketing Company, an evaporated milk processing facility located in northwestern Illinois.[3] In 1927, Dean renamed it Dean Evaporated Milk Company.[4] That same year, he purchased some local Illinois dairy plants. "Through thoughtful acquisitions and careful financial management, Dean Foods Company has grown from a small regional dairy into a diversified food company."[3]
Dean Foods tried to merge with a dairy in Chicago but was blocked by an injunction based on antitrust concerns. Dean Foods fought the decision up to the Supreme Court but ultimately lost in Federal Trade Commission v. Dean Foods Co.
On December 21, 2001, Dean Foods was acquired by the Dallas-based Suiza Foods Corporation. Suiza began in 1995, when Gregg L. Engles, owner of commercial ice company Reddy Ice merged Reddy with Suiza Dairy, which Engles had acquired in 1993. After the merger of Reddy and the dairy acquisitions, the company became Suiza Foods Corporation. After the acquisition, Suiza changed its ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange from “SZA” to “DF” and moved all of its operations to Dallas. On March 29, 2006, Dean Foods was added to the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index. The headquarters for Dean Foods was also moved to Dallas after the merger with Suiza Foods.[5] The company moved to Cityplace Center in the Cityplace district in the first quarter of 2010.[3][6][7]
In August 2006, Dean Foods acquired Jilbert's Dairy, a 70 year old family business near Marquette, Michigan.[8] In December 2007, Dean Foods bought the Wells Dairy milk plant in Le Mars, Iowa.[9] Dean Foods purchased Alpro in 2009 for an estimated US$455 million, making it a "global leader in soy beverages".[10] This resulted in a restructuring of the company, with it selling off a number of subsidiaries, including Rachel's Organic.[11]
Dean Foods products include: fluid milk, frozen vegetables, and processed pickles. Dean's product line includes ice cream, frozen desserts, canned vegetables, relishes, salad dressings, dips, and nondairy creamers.[3]
Dean Foods produces soy milk in the United States under the name Dean Foods and (Sun Soy). organic milk is marketed under the brand Horizon Organic.
White Wave Foods is the distributor for Silk soy milk, Horizon Organic dairy products, International Delight creamer, some Land O'Lakes dairy products, Hershey's milk products, and Stōk espresso shots.
The company's TofuTown brand and its various tofu products were acquired by the Hain Celestial Group in June 2007.
Dean Foods owns many other brand names, such as Alta Dena, Barbe's, Barber's, Berkeley Farms, Borden, Broughton Foods Company, Brown's Dairy, Country Fresh, Creamland, Dairy Ease, Gandy's, Garelick Farms, Jilbert's Dairy, Lehigh Valley Dairy Farms, Liberty Dairy, Louis Trauth, Mayfield Dairy, McArthur Dairy, Meadow Brook, Meadow Gold, Model Dairy, Oak Farms, PET Dairy, Price's, Purity, Reiter, Robinson Dairy, Schenkel's, Schepps, Swiss Farms (formerly Wengert's Dairy of Lebanon, Pennsylvania), T.G. Lee, and Tuscan Dairy Farms.
Dean Foods licenses the Land O'Lakes brand, which markets butter, margarine, eggs, sour cream, whole cream, and other fluid dairy products.[12]
Dean Foods has 100 facilities located in 35 American states as well as five manufacturing plants in the countries of Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.[10] The Dean Foods Corporation owns other division companies in the following US states: Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
In 2001, the company was sued by seven former employees, who alleged the company did not protect them from harassment by fellow workers in the workplace. The alleged harassment activity included the posting of swastikas and Ku Klux Klan graffiti, as well as rope nooses and Confederate flags. The incidents are said to have taken place between 1993 and 2000. The case was settled in May 2003, when the plaintiffs agreed to a $3.3 million out-of-court settlement.[13]
Two shareholders filed lawsuits against Dean Foods and Horizon Organic Holding Corp. in 2003, alleging Dean paid too little in their agreement to acquire the company. The lawsuits, which sought class action status, also alleged neither company met their legal obligation to satisfy the interests of the Horizon Organic shareholders. Executives at Dean Foods said the lawsuits were without merit. Dean Foods settled with the shareholders in May 2007.[13]
On May 12, 2008, Cornucopia filed a complaint with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) declaring that Deans Foods restrained an abundant amount of their cows to an unhygienic feed yard in Snelling, California; federal organic regulations require such animals to be maintained in an organic environment with access to pasture and fresh grass. Allegations from the federal agency were dismissed.[14]
The Dean Foods' facilities in Colorado and Texas milk approximately 20,000 cows. These operations have been investigated by the USDA as a result of complaints filed by Cornucopia representing the family-scale farming community.[14]
In 2009, the company was criticized and accused of being a monopolistic broker.[15]
In the fall of 2009, Pioneer Press reported the Cornucopia Institute had made complaints to the U.S. Department of Agriculture accusing Silk producer Dean Foods and its WhiteWave Foods division of shifting their products away from organics without properly notifying retailers or consumers.[16][17] According to the Star Telegram and other news sources, Silk brand soy milk was made using organic soybeans until early 2009, when Dean Foods switched to conventional soybeans while maintaining the same UPC barcodes and prices on the Silk products and replacing the word “organic” with “natural” on the Silk product packaging.[18]
Foremost Farms USA, a cooperative of over 2,000 dairy farmers in several midwestern states, sold its Wisconsin milk processing plants to Dean Foods in 2009.[19] On January 22, 2010, the US Department of Justice, along with the state attorneys general of Wisconsin and Michigan, filed a law suit and complaint that alleges the purchase created a monopolizing provider.[20] According to a press statement released that same day, Dean Foods announced it was contesting the complaint.[21]
In October 2010, Dean Foods announced it was retiring the Schepps brand for dairy products in the Dallas, Texas area in favor of their Oak Farms brand. The Schepps brand had been in the Dallas market since 1942.[7] A transition period with Schepps/Oak Farms cobranded milk began on October 11, 2010, with a complete switch to Oak Farms branding planned for February 2011.[22]
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