Danone

Groupe Danone is a food production company trading mainly in dairy products and bottled water and claims to be the leading world company in dairy products. Their mission statement is

"Bringing health through food to a majority of people"

Contact Details

Address - 7, Rue de Téhéran,Paris, France

Websire - www.danone.com

Facts

Sales in 2005: 13,024 million Euros (+ 7.8 at comparable scope)

• Operational Income 1,700 million Euros (2005)
• Revenue 13,024 million Euros (2005)
• Operating Margin: 13.35% ( 6.1% base points in relation to 2004)
• Operating margin : 1.31 million Euros
• Workforce: 88,184

People

• Franck Riboud is the President at Danone A.s., Investment Arm. He has been has been Advisor of Quiksilver Inc. since August 1, 2006. Mr. Riboud has been the Chief Executive Officer of Groupe DANONE (formerly BSN Group). He serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Compagnie Gervais Danone of France and Generale Biscuit of France. Mr. Riboud joined Groupe Danone in 1981 and has held several positions, including General Manager of Evian since 1990 and General Manager of Corporate Business Development since 1994, when he was responsible particularly for the internationalization of Groupe Danone.

Mr. Riboud served as a Vice President and General Manager of Groupe Danone since 1994. He has been Chairman of Groupe DANONE since 1996, Danone Asia Pte Ltd., Compagnie Gervais Danone, Generale Biscuit, Termas Villavicencio, and Aguas Minerales. Mr. Riboud also serves as a Vice Chairman of Danone S.A., Danone Sabanci, and Gida Ve Icecek San.Ve.Tic.A.S. He has beena Director of L'Oreal S.A. since May 29, 2002; Renault SA since December 2000, and Groupe DANONE since 1992. Mr. Riboud serves as a Director of Danone Finance, Accor SA, Lacoste S.A., Association Nationale des Industries Agroalimentaires, ANSA, Bagley Latinoamerica sa, ABI Holdings Limited (ABIH), Associated Biscuits International ltd. (UK) (ABIL), Wadia BSN India Limited (India), International Advisory Board HEC, Clover Holdings Limited, Strauss Dairies Ltd., and Fiat of Italy. He also serves as a Director of Sofina SA, Sofina Belgium, ONA (Morocco), Club Paris Saint Germain of France, Quiksilver Inc United States, and Kalisto Entertainment SA. Mr. Riboud serves as Permanent Representative of Groupe Danone on the Board of Directors of Lu France; Compagnie Gervais Danone for Danone; Compagnie Gervais Danone for Societe Des Eaux De Volv I C and Generale Biscuit for LU. He also serves as a Commissioner of PT Tirta Investama (Indonesia). Mr. Riboud served as a Director of Quiksilver Inc. from June 2002 to August 1, 2006 and Non-Executive Director of Scottish & Newcastle PLC since July 2000. He served as an Independent Member of the Supervisory Board of Accor SA since July 3, 2001 and Member of the Supervisory Board of Eurazeo SA since May 15, 2002 and was first elected to the Board on April 25, 2001. Mr. Riboud holds a degree in Engineering from Ecole Polytechnique in Lausanne, Switzerland.

• Jacques Vincent has been Chief Operating Officer and Director Général of Groupe DANONE since 1998.

Mr. Vincent serves as Chief Executive Officer ('Administrateur Délégué') of IFI S.p.A. He served as Vice President of Fresh Dairy Products. He began his career with DANONE in 1970 and has since held various positions as General Manager of certain of Fresh Dairy Product subsidiaries in France, Germany, Italy and the United States in the water and dairy businesses. He serves as Chairman of Eurofind and Co-Chairman of Business Group Italia-Giappone and Vice Chairman of Giovanni Agnelli e C.Sapaz. He has been Vice Chairman of Groupe DANONE since 1998. Mr. Vincent serves as Vice Chairman of IFI S.p.A and Fondazione Agnelli. He has been a Director of Groupe DANONE since 1997, Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods OJSC since June 27, 2007, Syngenta AG, since April 2005 and Yakult Honsha Co. Ltd. since May 2007. He served as Director of S.p.A. Egidio Galbani and CPGmarket.com. He serves as a Director of Université Luiss, Worms & Co, Inc. and Member of Supervisory Board of Worms & Cie, Inc. Mr. Vincent holds a Master of Science from Stanford University, an engineering degree from the Ecole Centrale de Paris and bachelor in Economics of Paris University.

Board of Directors

• Bruno Bonnell
• Richard Goblet d'Alviella
• Michel David-Weill
• Emmanuel Faber
• Jean Laurent
• Hirokatsu Hirano
• Bernard Hours
• Christian Lauble
• Hakan Mogren
• Jacques Nahmlas
• Benoît Potier

Policy

The Company website declares a strong ethical policy with teh following statement:

" The attention paid to individuals, whether they be consumers, employees or citizens, is at the heart of all our decisions."

* Sharing: An approach that emphasises dialogue, transparency and teamwork.
* Responsibility: DANONE pays attention to the safety of people and products, acts pro-socially and is environmentally friendly.
* Respect of the other: DANONE is sensitive to cultural differences, treats social and commercial partners with respect, and facilititates the developement of its partners. #[1]

Affiliations

• European Food Information Council

1. ^http://www.danone.com/wps/portal/!ut/p/kcxml/04_Sj9SPykssy0xPLMnMz0vM0Y_QjzKLN4g39vAHSYGZjpb6kehiphhCjgiRoLQifW99X4_83FT9AP2C3NDQiHJHRQCJeG95/delta/base64xml/L3dJdyEvd0ZNQUFzQUMvNElVRS82XzBfRVY!