Grameen Danone Foods, popularly known as Grameen Danone, is a
social business enterprise, launched in 2006, which has been designed to provide children with many of the key
nutrients
A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow, and reproduce. The requirement for dietary nutrient intake applies to animals, plants, fungi, and protists. Nutrients can be incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excret ...
that are typically missing from their diet in rural
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
. It is run on 'No loss, No dividend' basis. Initially, Grameen Danone agreed to pay an annual dividend of one percent to
shareholder
A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal own ...
s, however, in December 2009, the board of Grameen Danone agreed to waive any monetary return.
History
During his visit to Paris, France, in 2005,
Muhammad Yunus
Muhammad Yunus (born 28 June 1940) is a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, banker, economist and civil society leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance ...
, the founder of
Grameen Bank
Grameen Bank ( bn, গ্রামীণ ব্যাংক) is a microfinance organisation and community development bank founded in Bangladesh. It makes small loans (known as microcredit or "grameencredit") to the impoverished without requi ...
was invited by Franck Riboud, the chief executive officer of
Groupe Danone
A group is a military unit or a military formation that is most often associated with military aviation.
Air and aviation groups
The terms group and wing differ significantly from one country to another, as well as between different branches ...
(known as Dannon in the US). On 12 October 2005, they met in La Fontaine Gaillon, a Parisian restaurant. There Yunus proposed to form a joint venture between
Grameen
Grameen Bank ( bn, গ্রামীণ ব্যাংক) is a microfinance organisation and community development bank founded in Bangladesh. It makes small loans (known as microcredit or "grameencredit") to the impoverished without requi ...
and
Danone
Danone S.A. () is a French multinational corporation, multinational food-products corporation based in Paris. It was founded in Barcelona, Spain. It is listed on Euronext Paris where it is a component of the CAC 40 stock market index. Some of t ...
with the objective of supplying nutritious food to poor children of Bangladesh. As proposed by Muhammad Yunus, Franck Riboud agreed to participate in the project to be styled a ''social business''. Accordingly, the Grameen Group and Groupe Danone entered into an agreement to form a company called Grameen Danone Foods – a
social business
Social business was defined by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and is described in his books.
In these books, Yunus defined a social business as a business:
* Created and designed to address a social problem
* A non-loss, no ...
in Bangladesh. The objective was to bring daily healthy nutrition to low income nutritionally deprived populations in Bangladesh and alleviate poverty through the implementation of a community based business model, where no profit will be appropriated by the investing partners.
The launch of Grameen Danone received considerable attention and was attended by celebrities including French soccer player
Zinedine Zidane
Zinedine Yazid Zidane (; born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional football manager and former player who played as an attacking midfielder. He most recently coached Spanish club Real Madrid and is one of the most ...
of France.
Grameen Danone was led by Corinne Bazina from 2010 to 2014, Eric Ipavec from 2014 to 2016, Valérie Mazon from 2017 to 2018, and Dipesh Nag since 2020.
Products and price
Grameen Danone Foods Ltd. produces a yoghurt called ''Shokti Doi'' containing
protein
Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...
,
vitamins
A vitamin is an organic molecule (or a set of molecules closely related chemically, i.e. vitamers) that is an essential micronutrient that an organism needs in small quantities for the proper functioning of its metabolism. Essential nutrien ...
, iron,
calcium
Calcium is a chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. As an alkaline earth metal, calcium is a reactive metal that forms a dark oxide-nitride layer when exposed to air. Its physical and chemical properties are most similar to ...
,
zinc
Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...
and other
micronutrients
Micronutrients are nutrient, essential dietary elements required by organisms in varying quantities throughout life to orchestrate a range of physiological functions to maintain health. Micronutrient requirements differ between organisms; for exam ...
aimed to fill nutritional deficits of children in Bangladesh. 'Shokti Doi' (which means 'strength yoghurt') is primarily intended for children. In 2017, a 50g cup sold for 10 Taka and 80g cup for 40 taka.
Objective
Grameen Danone Foods aims to reduce poverty by creating business and employment opportunities for local people since raw materials including milk needed for production, will be sourced locally. The companies that make up Grameen Danone Foods Ltd. have agreed not to take out any of the profits out of the company. Instead they will invest these for creation of new opportunities for the welfare and development of people. Hence it is called 'social business enterprise'.
Production capacity
Grameen Danone has planned to set up and launch as many as 50 production plants during the ten years between 2006 and 2016. The first factory has been built in
Bogra
Bogra ( bn, বগুড়া), officially known as Bogura, is a major city located in Bogra District, Rajshahi Division, Bangladesh. The city is a major commercial hub in Northern Bangladesh. It is the second largest city in Rajshahi Divi ...
district which is about north of
Dhaka
Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...
, the capital city of Bangladesh. The first factory is a small one built upon an area of . Its daily production capacity was of yogurt when launched in 2006. In 2008, the production capacity has been planned to be enhanced to and beyond. Several hundred livestock-farming and distribution jobs would be created in the local community as a result of establishment of the first factory.
As of 2011, the company had not opened another factory.
Challenges
Grameen Danone maintains strict quality control for Shokti Doi. The
cold chain
A cold chain is a low temperature-controlled supply chain network. An unbroken cold chain is an uninterrupted series of refrigerated production, storage and distribution activities, along with associated equipment and logistics, which maintain qu ...
is maintained all the way from production to the end consumers. But maintaining cold chain is very expensive in Bangladesh as the traffic gridlock is a common scenario. Costly transportation is eating up a big portion of the return, thus could not reach its break-even till date.
References
Further reading
*
*
*
Faizul Latif Chowdhury
Faizul Latif Chowdhury ( bn, ফয়জুল লতিফ চৌধুরী; born 3 June 1959) is a civil servant from Bangladesh, who currently serves as the director general of Bangladesh National Museum. Chowdhury has written on a variety ...
: "The Business of 'Social Business'", The New Age, Dhaka.
External links
Speech of Muhammad Yunus on Social Business Enterprise Grameen DanoneHistory of Grameen Danone Foods Ltd.
{{Authority control
Food and drink companies of Bangladesh
Poverty-related organizations
Hunger relief organizations
Non-profit organisations based in Bangladesh