Case Study: How Danone Trans­formed Dairy Cream into Strate­gic Prof­it with Cibus Nexum

The Challenge: Underutilized Cream Streams Across Multiple Sites

Danone, a global leader in health-focused food products spanning dairy, plant-based foods, early life nutrition, and bottled water, operates several large-scale dairy factories across Europe. In these plants, raw milk is standardized to reduce fat and protein levels, producing a valuable by-product: high-fat dairy cream.

This cream, rich in both fat (around 40%) and protein, has traditionally been sold through a mix of annual contracts and spot market deals. However, these sales had limited flexibility and involved a small, recurring set of buyers, mostly focused on butter production. Danone suspected there was untapped potential in this sidestream and wanted to explore new ways to increase its overall valorization.

The Cibus Nexum Solution: Market Intelligence Meets Strategic Sourcing

Danone engaged Cibus Nexum for an in-depth, impartial analysis. Our team conducted a comprehensive review of the company’s cream sales across the last three years, both spot and fixed contract pricing.

We compared Danone’s internal pricing outcomes with prevailing European benchmarks and indexes for cream and butter, identifying both missed margins and strategic risk. From there, we expanded the scope to include:

✔ A European Market Scan – Mapping out a wide range of alternative cream processors, including those focused on butter oil, ghee, and ice cream production, not just butter.
✔ Contractor Network Analysis – Reviewing existing buyer relationships and uncovering over-reliance on a narrow customer base.
✔ Sales Strategy Recommendations – Identifying how to reposition Danone from a price-taker to a price-maker in the dairy cream market.

Importantly, Cibus Nexum acted independently, without ties to dairy brokers, ensuring that the strategy was built in Danone’s best interest.

The Results: From Market Follower to Market Maker

The outcome of the engagement was transformative. Danone moved from having a limited and relatively passive position in the dairy cream supply chain to establishing a diversified, competitive network of buyers.

Armed with new insight and a broader set of commercial options, Danone strengthened its negotiation power, both for long-term contracts and spot deals. The business transitioned from a market follower to a market maker, capable of steering its own pricing strategies with more authority.

This repositioning enabled Danone to better valorize its surplus cream, unlocking new revenue potential from existing production streams.

Why Danone Chose Cibus Nexum

While many players in the dairy space offer brokerage or trading services, Cibus Nexum stood out because of one key factor: independence. As an impartial, strategy-focused consultancy, we had no stake in the outcomes and no hidden interests; something that’s rare in the dairy sector.

Additionally, our ability to analyze complex multi-site operations and engage with stakeholders at the C-level ensured that our recommendations were both actionable and aligned with Danone’s broader business goals.

Lessons Learned: Don't Overlook the Details in B2B Supply Chains

One operational insight that emerged during the project was the misalignment in documentation expectations. Some prospective buyers required cream specification sheets no older than two years, but Danone’s internal process used a longer update cycle. This minor but critical mismatch could have blocked potential partnerships, highlighting the need for B2B readiness not just in volume and pricing, but in documentation and compliance.

Need Help Unlocking Hidden Value in Your Supply Chain?

If your business is sitting on a valuable by-product or wants to revisit long-standing outsourcing and sales practices, Cibus Nexum offers the strategy, market insight, and independent perspective to help you rethink the status quo.

Let’s talk about how to turn your side streams into strategic assets.