French Company Buys YoCrunch of Naugatuck

French foods products corporation Danone has purchased Naugatuck-based YoCrunch yogurts. 

Danone announced in a press release Friday that it has acquired 100 percent of YoCrunch's share capital. 

Founded in 1985, YoCrunch makes yogurt with crunchy toppings packaged separately, in part through licensing agreements with well-known national brands such as M&Ms and Oreo, according to a press release from Danone. With net sales of $110 million and sustained double-digit growth in recent years, the company is now the market leader of the yogurt with toppers segment, the release states.

"This acquisition will advance Danone’s ambition to further develop yogurt consumption by notably expanding the various ways in which Americans can enjoy yogurt," the press release states. "It will strengthen its offer in the United States by widening its range of products. The move will also enable Danone to benefit from YoCrunch’s unique expertise in compartmentalized packaging, developed in the company’s plant in Naugatuck, Connecticut." 

YoCrunch has about 125 employees in Naugatuck, plus about 20 in the office. There are eight in its Chicago office, according to a 2012 article in the Hartford Courant. The company produces more than 6 million cups of yogurt a week, the 

In January, the company, which has cashed in on the Greek yogurt craze, introduced a new line of Greek yogurt called "Yopa!" In a news release announcing the new product line, the company called itself, "the fastest growing, full-line yogurt brand." The Courant article mentioned above says that sales had grown 36 percent between 2011 and 2012, based in large part to the Greek yogurt push. 

The company started in Mount Vernon, N.Y., and moved to Naugatuck in 1991 when founder Joseph Dansky bought the former Naugatuck Ice Cream Dairy building. It is headquartered at 141 Sheriden Drive, Suite A, in the Naugatuck Industrial Park. The company also has a plant on Spring Street.  

It is unclear what the sale means for the company's employees or whether there will be a shakeup within the business. We will follow up this breaking story. 

About Danone (from the company's news release) 

Danone is an international company present on five continents. The group holds top positions in healthy food through

four businesses: Fresh Dairy Products, Baby Nutrition, Waters, and Medical Nutrition. Its mission is to bring health through food to as many people as possible.

Danone has more than 190 production plants and around 102,000 employees. In 2012, the company generated sales of over €20 billion, with more than 50 percent in emerging countries.

Listed on NYSE Euronext Paris, Danone is a component stock of leading social responsibility indexes including the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, ASPI Eurozone and the Ethibel Sustainability Index.