Suiza Foods Corporation (NYSE: SZA), the nation’s leading dairy processor, announced yesterday that it has settled the antitrust investigation conducted by the Attorneys General of the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. The investigation, which began in March 2000, arose in connection with a long- term supply agreement between Suiza and The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company and an agreement to sell certain of Stop & Shop’s dairy processing assets to Suiza. The settlement preserves intact the existing long-term supply agreement enabling Suiza to continue to provide dairy products to all of Stop & Shop’s stores in New England.
“We are very pleased to bring this investigation to a close,” said Michelle Goolsby, Suiza’s Executive Vice President and General Counsel. “This settlement will allow us to continue our normal business activities throughout New England. We will continue to be able to provide New England dairy farmers with consistent and reliable market access for their raw milk. We will also continue to be able to operate all of our New England assets, which allows us to continue to serve our valued customers and ensure high quality, competitively priced milk products for New England consumers.”
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The settlement requires Stop & Shop to sell its dairy processing assets at its Readville, Mass. plant to a party other than Suiza. Suiza also agreed to make certain processing capacity available to other New England processors for a five-year period and to provide advance notice to the Attorneys General of future acquisitions or plant closures in New England.
Suiza Foods Corporation, based in Dallas, Texas, is the nation’s leading fluid dairy processor and distributor, producing a full line of company- branded and customer-branded products.
