10 September 2007 - According to Croatian news reports, French dairy producer Lactalis plans to invest 5 million euro in its Croatian subsidary Dukat over the next 18 months to boost production.
The funds will be mainly used to expand the Sirela dairy, in Bjelovar, central Croatia, which currently employs 350 and collects milk from over 3,000 farmers, add the reports.
In July, FLEXNEWS reported that Lactalis completed the acquisition of Dukat. Previously, in March, Lactalis agreed to buy 91.5% of Dukat from Croatian businessman Luka Rajic for 2 billion kuna (274.4 million euro).
Dukat, which changed its name from Lura, posted sales of 2.2 billion kuna in 2006, roughly unchanged from 2005.
Meanwhile, in France, Lactalis may be interested in acquiring Boursin, which has recently been put up for sale by Unilever, says the French business media.
Lactalis has said that it will consider an acquisition carefully, but has admitted that there may be issues over competition.