New Zealand’s Fonterra, the world’s largest exporter of dairy products, and New Zealand Dairy Foods (NZDF) have reached an agreement that will return the iconic Anchor brand to Fonterra’s product range in New Zealand, thereby aligning its international brand portfolio.

The Anchor brand is popular in many markets including the Middle East.
Fonterra was also in the news recently for winning the “Olympics of Cheese” - the prestigious Fayrefield Trophy, awarded annually to the best non-British cheddar at the Nantwich International Cheese Show.  This year’s trophy went to a Waitoa cheese, which was also a gold medallist in the mild cheddar category.
The trophy was not Fonterra’s only success at Nantwich.  A Waitoa mature cheddar, entered by Fonterra’s joint-venture partner Arla, was awarded a silver, as was a low-salt cheese manufactured at the company’s Lichfield plant.
Both the Fayrefield Trophy winner and the Lichfield entry are development cheeses. Waitoa Cheese plant manager Paul Sweetman, a judge at last year’s show, said it was an excellent result for a trial cheese, and “is already proving good for business.”
 Also, recently, Fonterra launched a range of natural dairy protein crisps with up to 80 per cent dairy protein content.  It secured rights to the protein extrusion technology developed by Good Star Foods Inc in Reno, Nevada.
Under the Fonterra-NZDF agreement, Fonterra will acquire a range of assets from NZDF including the Anchor Milk and Fresh’n’Fruity yoghurt brands and will sell its Meadow Fresh beverages and yoghurts and its Kiwi Meats businesses to NZDF.
“Anchor is one of our international power brands and this is a once-only opportunity to regain the brand in our home market,” Fonterra chief executive Andrew Ferrier said recently.
“This is a strong move for Fonterra in New Zealand with good prospects for overseas expansion of our brand portfolio.”
The assets acquired by Fonterra from NZDF are valued at $754 million and the assets acquired by NZDF from Fonterra are valued at $416 million.
Under the details of the agreement: Fonterra will acquire most of NZDF’s assets (the principal exclusions being Puhoi Cheese and NZDF’s cheese business which will have use of the Anchor brand under a 10-year licence)
NZDF will acquire Meadow Fresh beverages, yoghurts, the Kiwi Meats businesses and the route (fresh milk deliveries) and food services and distribution networks. Fonterra will retain the Mainland cheese and export businesses.
The agreement sees Fonterra gain the rights to much of New Zealand’s Anchor-branded products. Fonterra currently owns the Anchor brand outside New Zealand but Anchor in New Zealand was part of NZDF when it was sold to allow the merger that formed Fonterra to proceed.
Fonterra Brands managing director Sanjay Khosla said the Meadow Fresh and meats businesses were good performers and their strength was a key asset in the transaction.
Fonterra Co-operative Group Ltd is a leading multinational dairy company, owned by 12,000 New Zealand dairy farmers.  It is the world’s largest exporter of dairy products, exporting 95 per cent of its production.
 Collecting over 13 billion litres of milk a year, it manufactures and markets over 2 million tonnes of dairy products annually, making it the world’s leader in large-scale milk procurement, processing and management.