Arla Foods and Juhayna form joint venture company to sell Arla’s products in Egypt

Arla Foods and the Egypt-based dairy company Juhayna have agreed to form a joint venture which will sell Arla’s products across Egypt.

Juhayna Food Industries is Egypt’s leading manufacturer of UHT-milk, yoghurt and juice. However, Juhayna has a very limited production of butter, cheese and cream, which Arla has specialised in across the Middle East and Africa. Therefore the two companies will now form a joint venture company that will sell Arla’s products in Egypt.

“It is a very good match for both parties. Juhayna has a nationwide distribution network, and we are not competing within the same product categories. Together we now get a broader product portfolio, which strengthens the business of both parties,” says Arla’s senior director of the Middle East & Africa, Rasmus Malmbak Kjeldsen.

Juhayna owns 51% of the new company but Arla will be responsible for the daily management of the joint venture

Juhayna owns 51% of the new joint venture company, while Arla owns 49%. However, Arla will be in charge of the daily management of the joint venture. The ambition is for the company to also start up local production in Egypt.

“We have built our entire business in the Middle East through cooperation with local partners. In Arla we excel at making joint ventures succeed, and that is a business model we will use to establish ourselves in other African markets as well,” says Rasmus Malmbak Kjeldsen.

He estimates that the new joint ventures company will have 40-50 employees, and he predicts that the work force will exceed 100 employees within the next year or two.