French
food multinational Danone has joined hands with Asia's
leading micro financier, Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, to
start what they call a social business enterprise. CNBC-TV18
reports from Dhaka where Danone's brand ambassador, soccer
star, Zinedane Zidane, launched a new yogurt making company.
Zidane
may have stolen the thunder, but for Nobel laureate and
founder and managing director of Grameen Bank, Muhammad
Yunus, Grameen Danone, the company he inaugurated, is
the real story.
Its
yogurt, Shakti Doi will be made from milk and skills sourced
locally. The project is expected to raise the daily income
of more than 1,500 women near the plant by 50 per cent.
The investors, Grameen and Danone, will plough all profits
back into the company.
Yunus
says, "We can do it in water, healthcare, pharma,
education, in any area of social problem. You name it
and it can be done with a social business format. We can
ultimately and even now create social stock market where
we list all the social businesses and people have a choice
whether they want to invest in companies that are pure
profit maximisers or social enterprises or both,"
Yunus adds.
Grameen,
which means `of the village' or with rural roots, is a
formidable brand name today. Perhaps one of the reasons
why the multinational Danone has got into a 50:50 joint
venture here.
Emmanuel
Faber, executive VP, Asia Pacific, Danone, says, "Obviously
when you are in France and want to address the mass market
you talk in our jargon of A&B consumers. The same
in the US. If you want to talk about massive population
in countries like Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam, we must
create business models that can fit with the economic
conditions of much poorer people."
Danone
says that this pilot ties in with its mission to spread
health through food. It also gives the giant with consolidated
net sales of over €13,000 million in 2005 (it projects
between 5 and 7 per cent
growth in calendar year 2006) a chance to reach consumers
outside its net. It's not ruling out the future possibility
of doing business the conventional way in Bangladesh.
|