Danone to slash costs as sales growth slows

French dairy giant Danone unveiled a one-billion-euro ($1.1-billion) cost-cutting programme Wednesday as it said that sales growth slowed last year. Danone said in a statement that although it turned in a "robust" performance last year, it needed to improve costs in order to face up to the current challenges.
"While we delivered a robust performance.the challenges we faced, including a slower turnaround of dairy in Europe and major market volatility, are a clear case to step up in our ability to seize consumer opportunities and improve our efficiency," said chief executive Emmanuel Faber.