Inside Emmi’s growth playbook: How the Swiss dairy group is building momentum

Emmi Group delivered organic growth and a net profit increase in a year marred by trade tensions and weak consumer sentiment.

The Swiss company has attributed this to strategic acquisitions, strong fiscal discipline and efficiency improvements, and a winning portfolio mix that plays across both health and indulgence.

With a potential to become a top 20 dairy company by turnover, Emmi has shown how a legacy player can thrive by investing in high-growth spaces.

Here’s what the company is doing right.

Geographic diversification

On a backdrop of dairy players such as Fonterra and Saputo reducing their footprint in the region, for Emmi, Latin America remains a priority market.

While Switzerland and Europe delivered two thirds of net sales for the group, the Americas – particularly Brazil, Chile and Mexico – achieved the highest organic growth in FY25.

Notably, this was volume-led, meaning that Emmi bucked the trend of predominantly price-led growth in the region.

This momentum was also broad-based and driven by diverse categories including fresh cheese, yogurts and drinks, milk and cream, and powder and concentrates.

Strategic acquisitions

Emmi’s acquisitions were one of the strongest growth drivers for the group in FY25. The Swiss dairy major leverages acquisitions to enter new but complementary spaces or strengthen presence in existing ones.

Significantly, Emmi entered the premium desserts space through Mademoiselle Desserts Group (in France, the UK and the Netherlands) and The English Cheesecake Company (in the UK) while bolstering its coffee expertise through Swiss roaster (and a fellow Lucerne-based company) Hochstrasser.

This places Emmi in a premium, high-growth niche across both foodservice and retail while also strengthening the supply of freshly-roasted coffee beans for its flagship RTD brand Emmi Caffe Latte.

And in Brazil, the acquisition of Verde Campo provides scale and market reach in high-protein, natural and functional dairy – all categories that are experiencing momentum.

The acquisitions are poised to have a positive impact on the group’s balance sheet in the next year, too. In 2026, Mademoiselle Desserts Group will contribute to organic growth for the entire financial year for the first time – which could further support profitability in Europe.

Innovation and consumer megatrends

At the heart of Emmi’s growth momentum are four fast-growing premium categories: RTD coffee, specialty cheese, premium desserts and protein-focused innovations.

In RTD coffee, Emmi Caffe Latte remained a key growth engine in Switzerland and Europe in the past year. The brand is the leading RTD coffee in Switzerland, Spain and Austria, and the second best-selling one in the UK, Germany and Belgium.

Specialty cheeses were also a major sales driver, particularly Athenos and Meyenberg in the US and Kaltbach and other artisanal Swiss cheeses in Switzerland.

Premium desserts were another fast-growing categories in the portfolio and an area of R&D focus for the Swiss group, where it sees scope to innovate in both on-trend and classic desserts.

And in protein, the company is playing across dairy, beverages and even meal replacement products.

Crucially, all these segments are showing resilience and have further growth runway.

Portfolio and efficiency optimisations

Emmi also leveraged operational and portfolio optimisations to protect margins in a period of global economic and consumer headwinds.

Its efficiency programmes, procurement optimisations and decentralised business model helped EBITDA to nearly CHF 500m (see sidebar above for more information).

This included synergies from acquired businesses but also measures such as improved sourcing practices (such as localised production and sourcing to avoid global supply shocks where possible) and streamlined supplier relationships (relying on regional players to reduce risk and transportation costs).

The company’s portfolio is also leaning on high-growth categories such as specialty cheese, functional dairy and RTD drinks – making it resilient across markets and channels.

And so, Emmi Group closed FY25 on a high – but its growth trajectory may just be starting to take shape.

The Swiss dairy group expects its current strategy to deliver moderate growth in 2026, though it remains cautious about subdued consumer sentiment and ongoing trade and political volatility.

But its approach to supply chain optimisations, strategic acquisitions and scalable product innovation points toward a resilient operational model that can withstand economic and trade volatility while still delivering growth.