Dive Brief:
- Dean Foods reported a net income increase for the third quarter to $20.2 million from a loss of $16 million last year. Gross profit rose to $492 million from $417 million in the year ago period.
- Sales fell 14.3% to $2.03 billion from $2.37 billion last year. Sales fell last quarter as well.
- The dairy segment saw growth as lower costs and higher prices at retail were favorable for the overall category. DairyPure, Dean Foods' national white milk brand, drove some of that success.
Dive Insight:
As the first and largest national fresh, white milk brand, DairyPure offers Dean Foods a number of opportunities to be a pioneer in the nationally branded milk strategy.
"DairyPure has provided our sales organization with a strong selling story and value proposition to present to our customers while concurrently allowing us to effect the successful go-to-market strategy for our national brands this year," Dean Foods' CEO Gregg Tanner said in a news release.
"We view our portfolio of brands, especially with our national brands of DairyPure in fresh white milk and TruMoo in flavored milk, as a competitive advantage that complements our customer set and leverages the national scale of our network and one of the nation's largest best-in-class refrigerated direct store delivery distribution systems," said Tanner.
Dean Foods, like other milk producers, has also benefited from a milk surplus that has significantly driven down costs for milk.