{"id":45297,"date":"2019-11-13T19:55:45","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T00:55:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=45297"},"modified":"2019-11-13T19:56:04","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T00:56:04","slug":"dean-foods-americas-largest-milk-processor-files-for-bankruptcy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2019\/11\/dean-foods-americas-largest-milk-processor-files-for-bankruptcy\/","title":{"rendered":"Dean Foods, America&#8217;s largest milk processor, files for bankruptcy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-vimeo wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-vimeo wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Operation Dean Foods\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/247188621?h=e7a7a2d36b&amp;dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>On Tuesday, Dean Foods, the largest processor and\ndistributor of fresh milk in the U.S., announced that it had filed for Chapter\n11 bankruptcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The company, which owns national and regional brands like\nDairy Pure, Oak Farms, TruMoo, Land O\u2019 Lakes and more, plans to remain in\noperation as it restructures and attempts to sell off its operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Dallas-based company, which employs 15,000 people across\nthe country, has struggled to stay afloat as more and more consumers turn\nto&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.today.com\/food\/many-plant-based-milks-are-not-nutritious-dairy-consumer-reports-t163633\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">nondairy&nbsp;<\/a>milk options. Dean Foods has reported profit\nlosses for nearly two years, which is in stark contrast to the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.today.com\/food\/are-vegan-milks-healthier-dairy-truth-about-almond-soy-t126313\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">soaring popularity of beverages like almond milk, coconut milk\nand oat milk.<\/a>&nbsp;According to the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/webcache.googleusercontent.com\/search?q=cache:f1ZVMxq6qywJ:https:\/\/www.ers.usda.gov\/webdocs\/DataFiles\/48685\/pcconsp_1_.xlsx%3Fv%3D339.1+&amp;cd=3&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;gl=us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">U.S. Department of Agriculture<\/a>, American consumption of\nliquid milk per capita has fallen by about 25% in the last 20 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to facing changing consumer habits, Dean Foods\nhas also struggled with two grocery giants over the last few years. When\nWalmart began processing its own milk in 2017, Dean Foods was forced to cancel\nmore than 100 milk contracts with dairy farmers across eight states. In 2018,\nthe grocery chain Food Lion cut ties with the producer as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While grocers such as Kroger and Albertsons are following\nsuit in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.grocerydive.com\/news\/grocery--as-large-retailers-process-milk-dairy-companies-worry\/534599\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">expanding their own milk processing and bottling facilities<\/a>,\nshoppers will still be able to find Dean Foods&#8217; products on store shelves \u2014 for\nnow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eric Beringause, Dean Foods&#8217; CEO and president, reiterated\nthat, despite the announcement, the company plans to continue operating its\nfacilities nationwide. However, he acknowledged that the company faces more\nstruggles amid increasing competition in the marketplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Despite our best efforts to make our business more\nagile and cost-efficient, we continue to be impacted by a challenging operating\nenvironment marked by continuing declines in consumer milk consumption,&#8221;\nBeringause said in a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.prnewswire.com\/news-releases\/dean-foods-company-initiates-voluntary-reorganization-with-new-financial-support-from-existing-lenders-300956285.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">statement<\/a>&nbsp;released Tuesday. &#8220;Importantly, we are\ncontinuing to provide customers with an uninterrupted supply of high-quality\ndairy products, as well as supporting our dairy suppliers and other\npartners.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So are your favorite milk brands really not going anywhere?\nFor time being, it will be business as usual, though farmers will likely feel\nthe effects of the bankruptcy filing before consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cA number of [the National Milk Producers Federation\u2019s]\nmember cooperatives provide milk to Dean Foods and could be impacted by today\u2019s\nbankruptcy filing,\u201d Alan Bjerga, senior vice president of communications for\nthe lobbying group, said in a statement to CNBC. \u201cWe are gathering information\nto better assess the situation and will work closely with our members to\nprovide whatever support we are able to through this process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dean Foods, which also manufactures and sells other dairy\nproducts like butter, cream and ice cream, currently purchases 10% of all milk\nproduced by cows in the U.S. According to a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.prnewswire.com\/news-releases\/dean-foods-company-initiates-voluntary-reorganization-with-new-financial-support-from-existing-lenders-300956285.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">statement released Tuesday,&nbsp;<\/a>the company has previously\nbeen in talks with the Dairy Farmers of America \u2014 a network of about 14,000\nfamily-owned dairy farms \u2014 about potentially selling off &#8220;all assets of\nthe company.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Tuesday, Dean Foods, the largest processor and distributor of fresh milk in the U.S., announced that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company, which owns national and&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":45298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45297"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}