Wisconsin Ag Connection - Sale of Former Dean Foods Milk Plants Completed

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Sale of Former Dean Foods Milk Plants Completed
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 03/25/2021

Nearly six months after a federal judge ordered Dairy Farmers of America to divest its former Dean Foods milk processing plants in De Pere and Harvard, Illinois, a newly created holdings group announced it has acquired the properties. The purchasers include members of an investment partnership between New Dairy Opco, which also bought the bankrupt Borden Dairy Co., and Select Milk Producers.

As Wisconsin Ag Connection reported earlier, a U.S. bankruptcy court in Texas approved the sale of the plants to DFA for $433 million in April 2020. That decision came five months after Dean, at the time the largest dairy processor in the country, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. However, the U.S. Department of Justice and Commonwealth of Massachusetts filed an antitrust complaint in the Northern District of Illinois. They claimed the move makes it difficult for other companies in the industry to compete.

As a result, U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman approved a final judgment against DFA last October, which mandated the divestiture. He also ordered the company to sell off certain intellectual properties, including the exclusive right to use the Dean's name in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan; and licenses for the TruMoo and DairyPure brand names nationwide.

Meanwhile, New Borden is being run by a group of seasoned dairy industry veterans who oversee approximately 3,300 employees. The company partners with America's dairy farmers and leading retailers to provide families with delicious and nutritious food and beverage products.

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