France's Lactalis buys Saputo's British dairy unit in $1.34 billion deal

Saputo

14/08/2026 13:14

PARIS, Aug 14 (Reuters) - French dairy giant Lactalis reached an agreement to buy Canadian rival Saputo's SAP.TO unit in Britain in a deal valuing the business at 988 million pounds ($1.34 billion), the companies said on Friday.
After the acquisition, Lactalis will become a leader on the British cheddar, butter and margarine markets, Lacatalis said in a statement.
Saputo's British business includes the Cathedral City and Davistow cheddar brands and Wensleydale Creamery cheese and Country Life butter as well as the Clover and Utterly Butterly margarines, added Lactalis.
Saputo's Britain unit employs 1,300 people and it makes 94% of its sales revenues in Britain, Lactalis said.
($1 = 0.7386 pounds)
($1 = 0.8645 euros)

 (Reporting by Inti Landauro;
Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
 ((Inti.Landauro@thomsonreuters.com;))