Danone installs its first oat and coconut yogurt factory in Catalonia

The Danone factory in Parets del Vallès has been chosen by Danone to manufacture plant-based alternative yogurt products, primarily made with oats and coconut. This is the first time the French multinational has decided to enable one of its factories in Europe to produce this type of cow's milk substitute product on a large scale. The Parets center already had experience in the plant-based field, producing the Savia brand of soy yogurts.

Since Alpro has been in Danone's hands, the brand has multiplied its sales in Spain, as now, in addition to marketing plant-based drinks ---in alliance with Asturiana---, it sells desserts and yogurt alternatives made primarily with soy, coconut, and oats. All Alpro products are manufactured in three factories located in the United Kingdom, France, and Belgium, but from now on, some references will also be manufactured in the Parets del Vallès factory.

Danone has decided to use some of its most recognized brands, such as Activia and Oikos, to launch the plant-based products that it will produce in this Barcelona center. These new plant based products will be sold in the national market, but from Parets they will also be exported to Danone's subsidiaries in France, the United Kingdom, Nordic countries, Portugal, the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium.

The start-up of this new production line and the transformation of Parets into a hybrid factory ---it will produce dairy and plant-based products--- has required an investment of twelve million euros and the creation of twelve jobs. The plant, which covers 51,000 square meters, now employs 181 people. In Spain, Danone also has factories located in Aldaia (Valencia), Salas (Asturias) and Tres Cantos (Madrid). The four centers consume 850,000 liters of 100% Spanish milk daily, as the company has signed long-term supply agreements with local farms and with its own animal welfare certificate.

With this investment in Parets, Danone reaffirms the role of innovation driver that its Spanish subsidiary, based in Barcelona, has always played. Barcelona is the city where the group ---now French-owned--- was founded in 1919. The company led by Emmanuel Faber is also advancing in its transformation process to position itself as a company focused on health and improving the Planet. With the strengthening of the Alpro brand and the launch of plant-based alternatives with the Activia and Oikos brands, Danone also wants to respond to new consumption habits and embrace the emerging market of flexitarian consumers, one of the main trends in the food sector. It is estimated that Spain is already the second country in the European Union with the highest penetration of plant-based products alternative to meat, dairy or fish, that is, to animal protein.