Grameen Group, Groupe Danone team up to set up social business enterprise

Monday, April 10, 2006

Grameen Group Thursday signed an agreement with Groupe Danone, a French dairy company, aiming to provide nutrition to the low income and nutritionally-deprived population of the country.

The joint venture project, titled Grameen Danone Foods, a social business enterprise, will establish its first factory in Bogra involving $ 1.0 million (10 lakh).

Leaders of four Grameen enterprises–Grameen Byabosha Bikash, Grameen Shakti, Grameen Kalyan and Grameen Telecom–signed the agreement on behalf of the local side.

Speaking on the occasion, Grameen Bank Founder and Managing Director Muhammad Yunus said an enterprise is created not to maximise the profit, but with a declared mission to maximise benefits to the people served, without incurring losses.

“It is a small project to begin with, that contains the seed of a new breed of business which can change the economic world fundamentally”, he said.

Groupe Danone Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Franck Riboud said the goal of this partnership is to ensure health through food to the largest number of people in Bangladesh.

(…)”A total of 35 per cent sales of Groupe Danone’s are made in the developing countries and most of its 200 factories and 89,500 employees are located in Asia”, he added.

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Source: Financial Express (link opens in a new window)