The largest dairy in the US, Dallas, Texas-based Dean Foods Co, is on the lookout for a national food manufacturing partner who will pay to use its national refrigerated distribution system.
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Dean Foods currently operates about 6,000 distribution routes on its direct-to-store delivery systems (DSD), but it is seeking a partner to help fill out capacity on those routes.
CFO Barry Fromberg explained to Reuters: “We can go virtually anywhere any of our customers needs us to go, touching any type of store. It’s a huge asset for us. There’s a lot of interest and we’re talking to a lot of [firms] about how to put more product through it.
“There’s a lot of dry networks out there […] but the refrigerated is pretty unique.”
As well as filling capacity with another company’s products, Fromberg said that Dean would be putting more of its own products into the system as it adds new distribution channels such as convenience stores.
