Nutricia is a part of the Danone group that specialises in baby food and clinical nutrition. Products range from infant formula to specialised nutrition for babies with specific needs and for breastfeeding mothers. It also produces and markets special clinical nutrition, diet products and disease-specific nutrition.
De Stoomzuivelfabriek, the predecessor of Nutricia was born in 1896 in Zoetermeer, The Netherlands. In 1901 it was renamed to Nutricia. It soon started developing medical nutrition products, and later it entered the baby food market.
Cow & Gate was bought by Nutricia in 1981.
Milupa was founded as a successor to an industrial bakery created in 1903 in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe. It initially focussed on bakery and chocolate, then on baby food. In 1995 it was bought by Nutricia.
In 1998 the group got the name "NUMICO", formed by NUtricia, MIlupa and COw & Gate.
The company's Dairy & Drinks division, well known for its brands Chocomel/Cécémel, Fristi, Nutroma and Extran, was sold to Friesland Coberco (today FrieslandCampina) in March 2001.
On 2007-07-09, a €12.3 billion offer for the company by French rival Danone was accepted by the Numico board. Danone announced ownership of over 90% of Numico's shares on 31 October 2007, declaring its offer for the remainder unconditional. As a result, Numico was removed from the AEX index. The company's shares were delisted from the at the end of 2007 as Danone gained full control. The brands owned by Numico (Milupa, Nutricia and Cow & Gate) became under control of Danone.