On 18 December 2024, FrieslandCampina and Milcobel announced their intention to merge. De Brauw assists FrieslandCampina on this important step in the joint future of FrieslandCampina and Milcobel. By combining their forces, a leading dairy cooperative and dairy company will be created. The merger is intended to provide a strong foundation for a future-oriented organisation that has dairy front and centre for member dairy farmers, employees, consumers, and customers.

The merger of FrieslandCampina and Milcobel will create one international, future-oriented organisation that can seize opportunities and effectively address challenges more effectively in the global dairy market. The merger partners, both owned by dairy farmers for many generations, complement each other in market positions and product portfolios. The merger offers further business development opportunities in market segments such as consumer cheese, mozzarella, white dairy products (such as milk, buttermilk, and yoghurt), and ingredients, as well as benefits in efficiency and expertise, for example in the area of sustainability.

Based on the combined 2023 annual figures of FrieslandCampina and Milcobel - excluding Milcobel's Ysco business, which is in the process of being divested - the new, combined organisation has a pro forma revenue of more than 14 billion euros, operates in 30 countries, employs nearly 22,000 staff worldwide, and processes a total volume of approximately 10 billion kilograms of member milk. This milk is supplied by nearly 11,000 member dairy farms owned by approximately 16,000 member dairy farmers in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Northern France.

The cooperatives' boards signed a framework merger agreement regarding the proposed merger. The aim is to publish a detailed cross-border merger proposal in the first half of 2025, which will then be discussed with and voted on by FrieslandCampina's members and Milcobel's shareholders in 2025. The merger will be implemented following completion of certain conditions, including antitrust approval.