9 August marked the 20th anniversary of Lactogal’s acquisition of Leche Celta. At the time, the Portuguese group entered into an agreement with the US company Dean Foods and took control of the Galician dairy group for around €50m.

Two decades after entering the Galician market, ‘Leche Celta’ has become one of Lactogal’s key revenue drivers. It is no coincidence that the Portuguese group closed its 2025 financial year with revenue growth of 2.6 per cent, rising to €1.167bn, whilst at the same time recording a 72.4 per cent fall in net profit, which was only just kept afloat thanks to subsidiaries such as Leche Celta. In fact, Lactogal’s profits fell to €9.7m. Of this, €7.2m (74.8 per cent of the total) is attributable to Leche Celta, which ended the past year with both a fall in profits (by 18 per cent compared with the record year of 2024) and a decline in turnover from €300.5m to €294m.

Lactogal has 12 plants in Spain and Portugal, employing around 2,500 staff and processing more than 1,200 million litres of milk annually.