France’s Savencia Fromage & Dairy has increased its share in La Compagnie Fromagère, its cheese making joint venture with Tunisia’s Délice Holding, to 50%.

The increased shareholding from Savencia (formerly Bongrain) has come as the two companies sign a new strategic agreement. Savencia has now increased its stake from 42.5% in 2008, when the joint venture was established, to 50%. The increased investment from Savencia is designed to consolidate La Compagnie Fromagère’s position in the Tunisian market and also help the company explore export market.

In February 2018 Savencia reported its sales had risen by by 9.8% in 2017 to €4.85bn (US$5.98bn), driven by growth in its South American and Asia-Pacific international markets, as well as higher prices for dairy commodities.

Savencia has recently finalised its acquisition of a majority stake in Russian cheese maker OAO Belebey. The company is also reportedly looking at an acquisition in South Korea. Délice Holding was founded in 1978 and specialises in milk and dairy products. The company has also has a partnership from 1997 with Danone and is the market leader in Tunisia for milk and yoghurt products.

In January 2018 we reported that Swiss dairy giant Emmi’s subsidiary Kaiku had increased its stake in Tunisia’s second largest dairy company, Centrale Laitière de Mahdia SA (Vitalait). This week Emmi released its annual financial results and revealed that the company had increased its sales by 3.2% to CHF3.3bn (US$3.5bn) in 2017. CEO Urs Riedener noted that “Emmi made up a good deal of ground in the second half of the year, boosted by the good sales performance in the US and Tunisia.”