Dean Foods Company announced plans to consolidate its three branded businesses: White Wave, Horizon Organic and the Dean National Brand Group. The newly combined operation will be headquartered in the Boulder, Colo., area and is expected to have 2004 revenue of approximately $1.1 billion. The change is intended to enable the consolidated company to capture the full potential of its rapidly growing brands, to better serve its customers, leverage its scale, and increase profitability over time. Steve Demos, founder and president of White Wave, will serve as president of the newly consolidated company and will continue to report to Gregg Engles, chairman and chief executive officer of Dean Foods. The consolidation is anticipated to be complete by late 2005.
"We possess a strong stable of national brands with very high growth rates," said Engles. "Our current structure, with three distinct organizations, including three sales forces and three separate supply chains, is not the right structure to tap the full potential of our brands. This new organization will allow us to streamline and simplify our business model and is the right design to drive our business forward.