Dean Foods Promotes Blanchard to Presidency; Consolidation Continues

It's no surprise that there is some executive shuffling taking place at Dean Foods. Rapid acquisitions and subsequent consolidation are current the company's prerogative.

Dean Foods Co. (Franklin Park, IL), a leading U.S. dairy processor and distributor, named Eric Blanchard president of the company's dairy segment. Blanchard succeeds Thomas Ravencroft, who will continue to be responsible for planning, mergers and acquisitions.

The company also promoted Gary Flickinger, vice president of manufacturing and engineering, to a post directly responsible for all manufacturing operations in the company's dairy and specialty segments.

On the acquisition side in May, Dean completed the acquisition of Alta-Dena Dairy. In March, the company acquired Custom Food Processors International, an Iowa dry ingredient and non-dairy coffee creamer processor. In November, Dean acquired Berkeley Farms and in September acquired U.C. Milk Co. Earlier in the year, Dean acquired Hillside Dairy, Purity Dairies Acquisition, Lucky Stores Dairies, Wengert's Dairy, Penn Traffic Dairy, and Maplehurst Dairy.

And if the old saw, "you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs" has any truth, it's true here. A growing Dean Foods closed on the sale of its vegetable operations last September to better focus, in part, on dairy. Within dairy, only a month ago on May 18, the company announced the July 18 closure of its Indianapolis facility, which employs 200 (See related article). The company will consolidate production from its Maplehurst Farms dairy operations in Indianapolis, IN, into other Dean facilities in Indiana and Ohio.

Blanchard, then-president of the Dairy segment, said the plants that will take on the extra capacity are "are state-of-the-art and have superior quality records." The company stated at the time that it has "systematically rationalized production and distribution between its existing operations and newly acquired facilities, closing several other acquisition-related plants this fiscal year."