Dairy Products Manufacture Industry Profile

The US dairy products manufacturing industry consists of about 1,200 companies that have combined annual revenue of $90 billion. Major companies include Dean Foods, cooperatives such as Dairy Farmers of America and Land O'Lakes, and the US subsidiaries of foreign companies such as Danone. The industry is concentrated: the 50 largest companies account for about 75 percent of revenue.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Changes in consumer income drive demand for various types of dairy foods. The profitability of individual companies depends on efficient operations and marketing, as milk is a commodity product. There are few economies of scale in the manufacturing process, which is why small companies can effectively compete with the large ones in local markets. The industry is capital-intensive: average annual revenue per employee is about $690,000.

PRODUCTS, OPERATIONS & TECHNOLOGY

The four major product segments are fluid milk and milk products ($25 billion); cheese ($20 billion); ice cream and frozen desserts ($12 billion); and butter ($1.5 billion). Most companies specialize in only one product segment, although large companies may participate in several. Because of the perishable nature of much of the products, especially fluid milk, local production is the norm. Companies receive raw milk from local producers, process it, and distribute the products to local customers. Large companies own many local plants.

Nearly all milk sold in the US is pasteurized and homogenized. The basic steps in a milk processing plant are separating milk fat from ...