Dean Foods Bankruptcy Impacts Natural, Organic Brands

Originally Appeared in Presence Marketing News, December 2019
By Steven Hoffman

Uncle Matt’s Organic Inc., a leading organic juice brand, on November 12 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, along with dozens of other businesses owned by Dean Foods Company, the largest milk processor in the U.S.

Dallas-based Dean Foods (NYSE: DF) said the bankruptcy filings by it and all its subsidiaries in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas comes as the company deals with losing its biggest customer, Walmart, which decided to build its own milk plant, and the impact of declining demand for milk as American consumers opt for plant-based beverage alternatives, reported Sustainable Business News, a subscriber-based organic and sustainable food industry online news site. 

Founded in 1925, Dean Foods’ brand portfolio includes more than 50 national and regional dairy brands, including Country Fresh, DairyPure, Friendly’s, Garelick Farms, Land O’Lakes, Meadow Gold, Oak Farms Dairy, Swiss Premium, TruMoo, Tuscan Dairy Farms, and others. Among its natural and organic brand holdings, Dean Foods also owns juice maker Uncle Matt’s Organic, based in Clermont, FL, and is a majority stakeholder in flax-based plant beverage brand Good Karma, based in Boulder, CO. 

The bankruptcy filing’s effect on those companies is uncertain at this point. Representatives from Uncle Matt’s have not issued comment, to date. In an email to BevNET, Good Karma CEO Doug Radi said Dean Foods’ bankruptcy has “no impact” on the brand, which remains an independent company with a separate leadership team and board of directors. “We remain dedicated to our mission of making dairy alternative food and beverage products that deliver a plant-based mighty bundle of nutrition,” he told BevNET. 

In a statement to BevNET, CROPP Cooperative — which includes Organic Valley, Organic Prairie and Mighty Organic — said that, while it is “disheartened” by the bankruptcy, the joint venture it established in March 2017 with Dean Foods, called Organic Valley Fresh,  a direct to store distribution system for Organic Valley products, is outside of the Dean Foods filing, meaning “it has no impact on the venture’s customers or vendors. Organic Valley remains strong and our business overall has been bolstered by new innovations we’ve brought to market, including Ultra, the first organic ultra-filtered milk,” the statement read.