France is home to the world’s richest person, the wealthiest woman and now the biggest dairy fortune.
Over the course of three generations, the secretive Besnier family has grown what began as an artisanal cheesemaking operation in northwestern France into Groupe Lactalis, one of the largest global food companies. The three siblings who own the closely held manufacturer — Jean-Michel, 55, Emmanuel, 52, and Marie, 42 — are now worth a combined US$14.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Their wealth eclipses the milk-based fortunes of Canada’s Lino Saputo and the US’ Jim Leprino, but remain far behind France’s top-ranking luxury tycoon Bernard Arnault, worth US$205 billion, and L’Oreal SA heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers at US$94.7 billion.
Photo: AFP
The Besnier fortune illustrates the global reach of a clutch of France’s ultra-rich, who oversee firms built from small operations into industry giants through expansion and acquisitions.
The country is increasingly dominating the luxury sector through family-controlled companies such as LVMH and Hermes International, while the Dassault descendants hold sway in aviation and the Saades in shipping.
For the Besniers, growth has also brought more scrutiny. Lactalis began publishing financial results in 2018, the year a crisis over salmonella-tainted baby formula put Emmanuel, the chief executive officer, in a political and media firestorm.
In February, the company was charged for failure to recall, aggravated deception and involuntary injuries in France and ordered to set aside 600,000 euros (US$657,384) pending the outcome of the case.
In recent weeks, pressure has increased over inflation, with the French government encouraging food manufacturers to pass on lower commodity prices for their products.
“We need to see this in supermarkets as soon as possible,” French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said last week.
Inflation helped drive Lactalis revenue up 28 percent last year to 28.3 billion euros, while higher costs pushed net profit down 14 percent to 384 million euros and squeezed returns to 1.4 percent, a company statement said.
“Our margins have been significantly eroded,” Christophe Piednoel, head of communications at Lactalis, said on April 21 on RMC radio. “We hope we can lower prices in the fourth quarter.”
The performance has made Lactalis the world’s 10th-biggest food company by sales, it said, just ahead of rival Danone SA and behind Heineken NV.
Lactalis has come a long way from 1933, when founder Andre Besnier made his first dozen or so Camembert cheeses — 17 to be exact — using milk collected near his western hometown of Laval, where the company is still based.
He expanded over the years into products like butter and cream. His son, Michel, took over in 1955 after Andre died, creating the President brand, exporting Brie to the US and making the first acquisitions.
When Michel died suddenly in 2000, Emmanuel took the helm at age 29 and has been chairman and CEO since.
He has overseen about 100 acquisitions worth billions of dollars, ranging from Italian mozzarella-maker Galbani to infant formula and yogurt businesses. Emmanuel’s brother, Jean-Michel, and sister, Marie, are directors.
Lactalis climbed to the top of Rabobank’s Global Dairy Top 20 annual ranking in 2021, leapfrogging Nestle SA after agreeing to buy Kraft Heinz Co’s natural cheese business for US$3.2 billion.
The French company got the Cracker Barrel and Knudsen brands in that deal, but not Philadelphia, Velveeta and Cheez Whiz. Some of the top milk companies are cooperatives like Dairy Farmers of America and Fonterra.
Lactalis is working on undoing a reputation for being tight-fisted with farmers. It said it paid higher prices than competitors for milk last year in a bid to help producers combat inflation.
“In 2023, we won’t lower the price we are paying to milk producers,” Piednoel said in the RMC interview.
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS