French Danone thirsts for Zywiec mineral water business

The French dairy products producer Danone is vying to takeover one of the largest mineral water makers on the Polish market. It is highly likely that Danone is targeting Zywiec. However, Danone has not as yet made any official bid and Zywiec owners, which control 13.4% of the domestic mineral water market, are denying rumors their company is for sale. Analysts believe Danone was about to takeover Zywiec because all the other bigger water producers already have strategic investors that include PepsiCo and CocaCola. Besides, Zywiec is a well recognized trademark in Poland and therefore, Danone would be spared hefty advertising costs. Zywiec produces 150 million liters of water per year. (Puls Biznesu, page 4) S.M.