Animal Nutrition Company in the World". This is evident in the philosophy and strategy changes they have made in resent years and the ones they propose for the years to come.
Just recently, they acquired Agribrands International, Inc., the marketer of Ralston Purina products outside the United States, for $54.5 per share in cash, for an equity value of about $580 million. With this acquisition, Cargill Animal Nutrition will expand its international market for pet foods and will now have two of the biggest animal-feed brand names, Purina and Nutrena, as part of its product portfolio. The two businesses together will operate 176 plants in 26 countries and employ 9,500 people worldwide.
The Animal Nutrition Division (AND) in the United States is divided into 15 different districts (see Figure 2). Each district has a different focus depending on the markets they serve. One of the district s with the highest tonnage production is the Pacific Coast District which services Washington, Oregon, California and Nevada. This district has a strong dairy and poultry focus. During the 1999-2000 fiscal year, the Division produced 37,000 tons of poultry feed and 186,935 thousand tons of dairy feed. With 1.8 million cows in that market, it is clear that the dairy-feed business is key to the success of the district. Out of those 1.8 million cows in the district, about 1.5 million are located in California.
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