Dean Foods

Founding

Dean Foods was founded by Samuel E. Dean Sr., who owned an evaporated milk processing facility in Franklin Park, Illinois, in the 1920s. After purchasing other Illinois dairy plants Dean developed the enterprise "from a small regional dairy into a diversified food company".

Acquisition and growth

In December 2001, the legacy brand of Dean Foods was acquired by the Dallas-based Suiza Foods Corporation, who later adopted the Dean Foods name. As part of the merger, 11 plants were divested under the name National Dairy to a group led by Dairy Farmers of America. In the first quarter of 2010 the company moved to the Cityplace district of Dallas, Texas.

Bankruptcy

In November 2019, Southern Foods Group, LLC d/b/a Dean Foods, and forty-two affiliated companies filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas on November 12, 2019. The company cited the decline in consumption of cow's milk products; rendering them unable to meet their debt and pension obligations. The company stated that they were working with potential buyers for the company's assets. The cooperative Dairy Farmers of America was specifically named as a potential buyer. In 2020, all of Dean's assets were acquired by several companies. The largest share of assets was purchased by Dairy Farmers of America for $425 million.

Current

DairyPure

Former

Killer Shake – a subsidiary of Killer Productions Company (now defunct) is a former brand of chocolate milk with a dessert-like style. Dean Foods manufactured and sold this product under a license arrangement for the period January 1, 1996, through September 30, 1996.

Uncle Matt's Organic

Current

Alta Dena, Southern California, Arizona

In 2005, Dean Specialty Foods was spun off from Dean Foods as Bay Valley Foods, LLC, a division of TreeHouse Foods, Inc. In June 2005, TreeHouse Foods started trading on the New York Stock Exchange with a ticker of THS.

In August 2006, Dean Foods acquired Jilbert's Dairy, a 70-year-old family business near Marquette, Michigan.

Dean Food's TofuTown brand was acquired by the Hain Celestial Group in June 2007.

In December, Dean Foods bought the Wells Dairy milk plant in Le Mars, Iowa. The plant manufactured Blue Bunny ice cream.

Legal proceedings

In March 2005, the Cornucopia Institute filed a complaint with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) alleging that their Horizon Organic subsidiary was violating "organic livestock management" standards.

On May 12, 2008, the Cornucopia Institute filed a second complaint with the USDA again alleging that Deans Foods had violated federal organic regulations requiring access to pasture and fresh grass for their dairy cows.

Silk brand soy milk was made using organic soybeans until early 2009, when Dean Foods switched to conventional soybeans while maintaining the same UPC barcodes and prices on the Silk products and replacing the word “organic” with “natural” on the product's packaging, prompting the Cornucopia Institute to file complaints that the company had not properly notified retailers or consumers.

Foremost Farms USA, a cooperative of over 2,000 dairy farmers in several mid-western states, sold its Wisconsin milk processing plants to Dean Foods in 2009. In January 2010, the US Department of Justice and the state attorneys general's office of Wisconsin and Michigan, filed a lawsuit objecting to the purchase and alleged that it created a monopolizing provider. Dean Foods announced it was contesting the complaint.

In 2011, a class action suit was brought against Dean Foods over health claims made on the packaging of Horizon Organic Milk. In 2012, Dean Foods contributed $253,950 to fund opposition to California's ballot Proposition 37 which would require mandatory labeling of foods containing genetically modified ingredients.

In 2017, bettor and stock trader Billy Walters was convicted of insider trading in Dean shares in Federal court. Walters' source of non-public information was company director Thomas C. Davis employing a prepaid cell phone nicknamed "the Batphone" and, sometimes, the code words "Dallas Cowboys" for the company name. The case involved profits or avoided losses of $40 million from 2008 to 2014. The verdict was to be appealed according to Walters' lawyer.