Eurofins: Lactalis' claim 'unfounded

(CercleFinance.com) - French bio-analysis group Eurofins on Tuesday evening dismissed as "unfounded" the claim by dairy giant Lactalis for a billion euros in compensation in a contaminated milk case.


With this abusive complaint, Lactalis is clearly trying to divert attention from the numerous shortcomings in quality management at its Craon site, highlighted by the French government in its criminal proceedings against Lactalis", it states in a press release.

For the group, its subsidiary Eurofins Laboratoire Microbiologie Ouest (ELMO) is "in no way responsible" for the situation.

The company believes that Lactalis deliberately chose to ignore the results of ELMO's analyses, which had revealed the presence of salmonella in the Craon plant on several occasions since 2009, until August 2017.

In Eurofins' view, Lactalis does not appear to have properly implemented the control and withdrawal procedures provided for in such cases, whereas an appropriate response would have made it possible to avoid the crisis, which resulted in the contamination of babies.

For the time being, this case is having only a limited impact on Eurofins' share price: after falling by more than 2% on Monday and rebounding by 0.5% on Tuesday, the share was broadly unchanged (+0.1%) in early trading on Wednesday.

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