DFA wins bid for Dean Foods

Dean Foods has announced that, following a comprehensive sale process and a competitive auction as part of its Chapter 11 process, the Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) has been named the winning bidder to acquire a substantial portion of Dean Foods’ business operations. According to the agreement, which is subject to final approval by the bankruptcy court, DFA will acquire the assets, rights, interests, and properties relating to 44 of the company’s fluid and frozen facilities for $433 million.

Also, as part of the court-supervised sale process, Dean Foods has designated Prairie Farms Dairy as the winner of the assets, rights, interests, and properties relating to eight additional facilities, two distribution branches, and certain other assets for $75 million in cash. Dean Foods has designated Mana Saves McArthur and Producers Dairy Foods as winning bidders for the sale of the facilities located in Miami and Reno, Nev., respectively. Harmoni has been designated as the winning bidder for the Uncle Matt’s business.

Finally, Dean Foods has reached an agreement in principle under which Industrial Realty Group will buy the company’s Meadow Gold Hawaii operations as an ongoing business. According to the agreement, which is subject to final approval by the bankruptcy court, Industrial Realty Group will acquire the assets, rights, interests, and properties relating to Dean Foods’ Honolulu and Hilo, Hawaii, facilities. Industrial Realty Group will be partnering with 8 Cow Dairies, a Hawaii-based company, to manage operations.

“We ran a competitive auction process and are pleased to have reached these agreements, which we believe represent the best path forward for our stakeholders,” said Eric Beringause, president and CEO of Dean Foods, in a company press release. “Dean Foods has strong and long-standing relationships with DFA and Prairie Farms Dairy. “We are pleased that through these transactions, substantially all of our processing assets will continue to operate as dairies and will be owned by our dairy farmer partners with the resources, experience, and industry expertise to continue to succeed in the current market environment.”