| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Food & Beverage |
| Founded | 1991 |
| Headquarters | Melbourne, Australia |
| Area served | New Zealand |
| Key people | Andrew Reeves, MD |
| Products | Dairy & Juice |
| Operating income | A$117 million (2007) |
| Owner(s) | Kirin Holdings Company, Limited |
| Employees | ~3,500 |
| Parent | Lion Nathan National Foods |
| Subsidiaries | Dairy Farmers |
| Website | www.natfoods.com.au |
National Foods is an Australian company and subsidiary of holding company Lion Nathan National Foods [1], wholly owned by the Japanese Kirin Holdings Company Limited, and consequently the Mitsubishi Group.
It is Australia's largest dairy food and juice company, with core activities in milk, fresh dairy foods, juice and speciality cheese.
National Foods was created by the Adelaide Steamship Company in 1991 by amalgamating several dairy and food related businesses with brand names and histories dating back to the 19th century.
The company is a major milk producer in Australia with its flagship Pura brand. It is also a major juice producer and a leader in the fresh dairy products market. As of 2007, National Foods has almost half the national flavoured milk market with brand Big M, and Farmers Union Iced Coffee has the unusual distinction of being one of only three soft drinks to outsell Coca-Cola in its market-place. National Foods also manufactures yoghurt, fromage frais, dairy desserts, cream and cheese under brands that include Yoplait, Frûche, Divine Classic, YoGo and Farmers Union. The company also produces a range of premium speciality cheeses under brands such as King Island Dairy, South Cape, Tilba, Timboon and Clover Creek.
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San Miguel Corporation entered a bidding war for National Foods with New Zealand's Fonterra in 2004. National Foods board unanimously accepted the San Miguel Corporation offer. In 2005 San Miguel acquired National Foods for $1.8 billion. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission had earlier signed off on San Miguel Corporation's various Australian acquisitions, noting "there is no overlap between San Miguel's different activities in Australia and hence no change likely to the different markets in which these businesses operate." National Foods had earlier sold its juice business to Berri Ltd. After their acquisition National Foods regained 100% ownership of Berri Ltd. in December 2005. The two operations began the merger process soon afterwards. Following the merger, National Foods became the largest citrus and fruit processor in Australia, packaging approximately 50% of all fruit juice beverages sold in Australia. This led to National Foods having 3500 employees and 20 processing plants around Australia and New Zealand, with seven milk plants, five juice plants, four speciality cheese plants, a cheese packaging plant, two dairy foods plants and a joint venture soy beverage plant.
On the 8 November 2007, San Miguel Corp. sold National Foods to Kirin Holdings Co. (which had a 20% stake in San Miguel) for $3.1 billion. National Foods became a wholly owned subsidiary of Kirin, and in 2009, when Kirin acquired Lion Nathan, the two were merged to create Lion Nathan National Foods. San Miguel no longer had any working relations with Australia.
National Foods core brands are: Pura (milk), Big M (flavoured milk), Farmers Union Iced Coffee (flavoured milk), Masters (flavoured milk)[2], Moove (flavoured milk) [3], King Island Dairy (cheese), Tasmanian Heritage (cheese), Yoplait (yogurt), Berri Ltd. (juice), Vitasoy (Soy Milk, Oat Milk, Rice Milk). It produces these products from a total of 24 major facilities (19 in Australia, 1 in New Zealand, 2 in Malaysia, 2 in Indonesia).
In early October 2009, National Foods gave evidence at an Australian Senate inquiry into milk prices; the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association (TFGA) is angry that National Foods is paying Tasmanian farmers only 29 cents a litre for milk, about 10c/L below the amount it costs to produce the milk.[4]