General Mills finalizes sale of U.S. yogurt business to Lactalis

General Mills finalized the $2.1 billion sale of its North American yogurt business Monday, ending a nearly 50-year run selling Yoplait.

French dairy giant Lactalis now takes the reins of Yoplait, Go-Gurt, Mountain High and other brands in the U.S. The company also inherits 1,000 General Mills employees and manufacturing plants in Michigan and Tennessee.

Lactalis USA opened a Minnetonka office for the roughly 200 Minnesota-based and remote employees who will run the company’s new Midwest Yogurt division. General Mills’ headquarters is in Golden Valley.

Lactalis is the world’s largest dairy company and had $35 billion in revenue globally last year. The firm owns cheese brands Président, Galbani and Cracker Barrel as well as Stonyfield Organic and Brown Cow yogurt.

The company plans to invest heavily in innovation and manufacturing for the new brands.

“Our philosophy is to preserve and grow these brands and maintain their local character as well,” spokeswoman Hannah Feist said. “We’re really excited to welcome all these employees.”

Kerry DeLaney, who has led General Mills’ dairy division since 2023, is now Lactalis’ Midwest Yogurt CEO.

“By leveraging Lactalis’ expertise and dairy know-how, we will grow our portfolio of brands that consumers love and trust,” DeLaney said in a statement.

After the Yoplait acquisition, Lactalis will have about a 20% share of the U.S. yogurt market.

“This acquisition advances our U.S. growth strategy and strengthens our position as an emerging leader in the U.S. yogurt market,” Lactalis USA CEO Esteve Torrens said in a statement.

General Mills once dominated the yogurt aisle, which it entered in 1977 after buying the rights to Yoplait. But the company didn’t have an answer for the emergence of Greek yogurt and other innovations from the past decade, which saw newcomers like Chobani eat into Yoplait sales.

General Mills’ Canadian yogurt business went to French cooperative Sodiaal, the original owner of Yoplait, in a transaction that closed in January.

General Mills made about $1.2 billion from yogurt sales in the past year, a sharp drop from the $2 billion reported in 2020. Proceeds from the sale will go toward share repurchases and debt reduction, the company said Monday.