How Danone is Driving Co-Innovation Through the Value Chain
In 2023, Danone launched its global partnerships programme, Partner for Growth (P4G). 12 months on, Danone has signed 19 new strategic agreements and eight joint business development plans, surpassing its initial targets of 10 and five for each category.
These partnerships span across ingredients, packaging, manufacturing, agriculture and indirect suppliers.
The P4G is a key element of the Renew Danone strategy, fostering collaboration with partnerships across the world to deliver market-leading products. The programme is focused on four interconnected strategic pillars.
- Science and technology
- Precision capacity creation
- Cost competitiveness
- Sustainability
Generating business competitiveness
These close-working relationships are seeing organisations working together to co-innovate by leveraging cutting-edge consumer insights to unlock growth opportunities, which benefits the entire value chain and enhances consumer experience.
Danone has also embraced new technologies through the programme, to encourage efficiencies, strengthen agility and improve cost competitiveness.
Vikram Agarwal, Chief Operations Officer at Danone, says: "The supply chain plays a pivotal role in generating business competitiveness, creating value and driving progression.
"The first year of our Partner for Growth programme has been hugely successful. By partnering with industry leaders across our ecosystem we've forged strategic partnerships which leverage our respective strengths to create shared value, supporting the acceleration of a sustainable, climate-focused transition across priority sectors."
This work highlights Danone's commitment to place science and technology at the heart of its research and innovation. Danone has also entered into relationships with firms to unleash science and technology to deliver new product capabilities or functionality. These include Graphic Packaging (paper-based packaging), IFF (food and beverage bioscience) and Novonesis (nutrition BioSolutions).
The Danone impact journey
Through its partnerships, Danone is making significant progress against its sustainability initiative, the Danone Impact Journey.
Through this effort, alongside the multinational utility company ENGIE, Danone is accelerating its carbon reduction efforts across its Scope 1 and 2 sources, such as factories. The company is also looking at new technologies for saving energy and water with partners, including industrial equipment manufacturer SPX FLOW.
Danone is rolling out impactful sustainable farming and carbon reduction practices, while improving agricultural resilience by leveraging the expertise of businesses in the food, agriculture and nutrition sectors, such as Ajinomoto, Corteva, FrieslandCampina, MSD and Zoetis.
Isabelle Esser, Chief Research, Innovation, Quality and Food Safety Officer at Danone, adds: "Through our Partner for Growth initiative, we are continuously expanding our scientific expertise to drive innovation and develop new products.
"We are excited to collaborate with pioneering businesses at the forefront of innovation, working together to create cutting-edge solutions that meet the evolving needs of consumers and patients around the world."
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