Thread by @kegill

Let's clear up a few things about Dean Foods and its filing for bankruptcy protection.

FIRST, Dean Foods does NOT own @LandOLakesInc, which you state in a headline, @MSN @CNN , that has been live for THREE HOURS.

LOL IS A FARMER-OWNED COOPERATIVE.

msn.com/en-us/money/co…

Seriously, all of you guys writing about this story should have talked to someone about how the dairy industry works.

Dean Foods is dairy PROCESSOR. It. Owns. Manufacturing. Plants.
IT IS NOT A MILK PRODUCER.
It buys milk from farmers and sells packaged milk to retailers.

Dean Foods does not OWN the Land O'Lakes brand, @FastCompany . Most Americans probably associate LOL with butter, as that's its national brand. So headlines like this are incredibly damaging to the brand.

fastcompany.com/90429619/heres…

Dean Foods produces packaged milk for LOL in SOME states.

ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS LOOK AT THE DEAN FOODS WEBSITE: "*The LAND O’ LAKES brand is owned by Land O’ Lakes, Inc. and is used by license."

deanfoods.com/brands/land-o-…

Dean Foods sales dropped 7% in the first half of the year, not because Americans have stopped drinking milk, but because its largest customer, Walmart, is building its own milk plants.

You took the press release at face value:
prnewswire.com/news-releases/…

Walmart "shoved an industry veteran, Dean Foods, its former bottler, out the door. "

farmanddairy.com/columns/costco…

Walmart in Indiana - full production end of 2018.
agrinews-pubs.com/news/walmart-o…

Per capita consumption of milk has declined slowly since the 1970s (which is sometimes measured by the volume sold at the dairy farm level -- that milk may be sold at retail as cheese or butter or fresh milk or ice cream or sour cream or cottage cheese...). IT IS NOT NEW.

This is my periodic reminder not to believe 2/3 of what I read in "business" reporting ... because when I know the sector, I see what a muck up reporters make of the "news".

FIX YOUR HEADLINE @MSN @CNN

Dean Foods does NOT own @LandOLakesInc

@MSN @CNN @LandOLakesInc pls #unroll @threadreaderapp