Danone recently closed two key deals in Australia, snapping up healthy food and nutrition group Made and consolidating its majority stake in its fresh dairy joint venture with Saputo.
The Made acquisition is Danone’s first Asia-Pacific food/EDP growth deal since the French multinational formed a fresh dairy JV with Mengniu in 2013. You’d have to go back nearly 20 years to find its previous food-category M&A in the region, when Danone progressively increased its stake in Japan’s Calpis to take majority ownership.
Over the past 15 years, Danone has concentrated its M&A activity in its largest markets – North America and Europe – while moving from ownership to a partnership-led model in APAC.
At the same time, its APAC portfolio has historically skewed toward specialised nutrition and waters rather than food – the former two categories delivering 90% of APAC sales in 2025.
The Made Group acquisition would deliver an immediate financial boost, but it also aligns with Danone’s broader M&A objectives of entering or expanding in markets and categories where it’s been absent or underscaled.
Up until this year, the French multinational’s F&B deal-making activity in APAC has revolved around divestments rather than acquisitions – but this may be changing.
Time to diversify
For Danone, Oceania is one of the company’s specialised nutrition strongholds, with sales driven by high-margin, premium infant and medical nutrition platforms. Australia serves as a specialised nutrition production and export hub, while presence in food is less central.
This contrasts with other mature markets such as Japan, where Danone positions itself primarily as a value-added food company. There, premium functional food brands such as Oikos (protein) and Activia (gut health) drive sales.
And from the emerging markets of Southeast Asia comes a more balanced example – infant formula commands double-digit growth while dairy, waters and other F&B categories play a supporting role through mid-single or low-double digit growth.
Australia is a mature rather than emerging market for Danone, making it even more strategically important to seek category diversification there.
And consumer trends also support such a move.
According to a recent YouGov survey, the vast majority of Australians who want to purchase healthy groceries end up buying less nutritious options due to high prices – with 83% expressing a desire for retailers to run more promotions on healthy fresh products.
Australians consume enough protein but lack calcium and iron – meaning there’s scope to market functional dairy and beverage products as solutions to close those nutritional gaps.
Made Group’s brands are well-positioned to deliver on that locally while also potentially allowing Danone to grow its sales across SEA, where Rokeby is described as having a loyal following.
Beyond portfolio strategy, operationally, Danone’s majority stake in Saputo Dairy Australia buys the company additional flexibility – enabling it to further scale up its flagship yogurt brands YoPRO, Activia and Ultimate while investing in Made brands’ expansion.
It’s a move to reposition the group Down Under – with functional nutrition becoming an increasingly important pillar in a strategy that’s been much too reliant on specialised nutrition as a reliable profit driver.
And more broadly, it’s the latest deal supporting the French multinational’s expanding presence in healthy nutrition, following its move for meal replacement major Huel and earlier acquisitions such as medical nutrition player Kate Farms and microbiome specialist Akkermansia.
