US dairy Dean Foods stays quiet on chairman's sudden departure

During a conference call with analysts to coincide with its Q2 results, Gregg Tanner, CEO, Dean Foods, declined the opportunity to explain why Davis resigned last week after 14 years with the company. On August 7, in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, Dean Foods announced Davis was leaving the Dallas-based dairy His resignation from Dean Foods' board of directors was "effective immediately," it added. During yesterday's call, Ken Goldman from J.P Morgan asked Tanner if he could provide "color" on Davis' departure, which he said had left Dean Foods shareholders "assuming the worst." "Well I appreciate the questions," said Tanner, "but I really have nothing further that I can add other than the fact that we feel more optimistic than ever about the future of Dean Foods." A succession plan will be announced in due course, Tanner said earlier in the call. DairyPure Dean Foods, which is America's second largest dairy processor, reported revenue of US$2.01bn for the second quarter of 2015 - down from US$2.39bn in Q2 2014. It reported profit of US$26.5m, or US$0.28 per share, for the three month period - an improvement on the loss of US$645,000 in the same quarter of 2014. "I am pleased with the operational and financial performance of the business this quarter and really excited about our prospects going forward," Tanner said in a press release. "From a commercial perspective, with the category showing signs of improvement, we continued to focus on striking the right balance between volume performance and price realization." “And we successfully launched DairyPure, the country’s first and largest fresh, white milk national brand that we believe, over the long term, will provide incremental benefits to consumers, our category, our customers and our company.” In May, Dean Foods announced it was bringing all 31 of its regional fresh milk brands, including Alta Dena, Alta Dena, Meadow Gold and Oak Farm, under the DairyPure banner. During yesterday's call, Tanner said Dean Foods expects to begin to see the results of this move in the third quarter of 2015. “…as we go into the third quarter, I would assume on the next call, we’ll have more information as far as how well it’s performing," he said. “But I think it’s more of a long-term play for us as we take the DairyPure brand and move it into adjacencies.”

US dairy Dean Foods stays quiet on chairman's sudden departure

US dairy giant Dean Foods has refused to be drawn on the reasons for the sudden departure of its chairman, Tom C Davis.

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