Brookside Dairy acquires biggest yoghurt brand

Brookside Dairy Ltd has acquired another diary firm as it seeks to enhance its ever-expanding milk empire.

Brookside, one of Kenya’s biggest dairy processors, has snapped up the Delamere yoghurt brand in a transaction that has caught the dairy industry unawares.

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Already, Brookside has put its rubberstamp on Delamere yoghurt. The inside cover of its newly launched flavours announces the yoghurt is “manufactured by Brookside Kenya Ltd”.

Details about the deal remain scanty, but people familiar with the two companies say Brookside has already taken over management and financing of Delamere operations.

“Delamere is now under Brookside,” said a person familiar with their operations but who requested not to be named to preserve his relations with the firms. “Delamere has been bought. Brookside is running everything. But yoghurt making is still being done at the Delamere factory.”

At an event held today 8^th June by Delamere at Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi to launch new yogurt variants, it was obvious the line between the two had disappeared, with Brookside managers running the show.

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Brookside Marketing Director Oliver Mary doubled as marketing director of Delamere at was named as one of the guests at the event held at the aptly named Delamere Terraces at Norfolk Hotel.

The financial details have never been disclosed, but being a strong brand in the market spanning 90 years, its owners certainly earned a premium. Privately held companies are not obligated to reveal their financial details.

This is the fourth acquisition by the Brookside, which is turning into a milk processing monster, just a few glasses of milk from becoming a monopoly.

What stands between it and taking firm control of the dairy market in Kenya is New KCC, which has a tight grip on a huge chunk of the market spread across the country. There are other smaller players in the market like Daima and Githunguri Dairies, which produces the Fesha brand.

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In February 2010, Brookside Dairy through private equity fund Aureos Capital, announced the acquisition of Spin Knit Dairy, with its Tuzo, Lea and Ever fresh milk brands.

Three years later, in August 2013, Brookside took over Buzeki Dairy Ltd, which owned the Molo Milk brand, then the leading brand in the market, ahead of New KCC and Brookside.

In May 2015, the giant milk processor took its insatiable appetite for acquisitions to Uganda, buying out Sameer Agriculture and Livestock business for Ksh3.5 billion. The deal between Brookside and Sameer caused furore in Uganda because of what the public saw as selling off of public assets to foreign firms at a song.

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