Grameen Danone: a Social Business

During his visit to Paris, France, in 2005, Professor Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank was invited by Franck Riboud, the chief executive officer of Groupe Danone (known as Dannon in the USA). On 12 October 2005, they met in La Fontaine Gaillon, a Parisian restaurant. There Yunus proposed to form a joint venture between Grameen and Danone with the objective of supplying nutritious food to poor children of Bangladesh. As proposed by Muhammad Yunus, Franck Riboud agreed to participate in the project to be styled a social business.[1] Accordingly, the Grameen Group and Groupe Danone entered into an agreement to form a company called Grameen Danone Foods - a social business enterprise in Bangladesh. The objective was to bring daily healthy nutrition to low income nutritionally deprived populations in Bangladesh and alleviate poverty through the implementation of a unique community based business model, where no profit will be appropriated by the investing partners.