Valio

Valio Ltd

Type	Limited company
Industry	Dairy
Founded	1905 (1905)
Headquarters	Helsinki, Finland
Key people	Annikka Hurme (CEO)
Revenue	EUR 2 billion
Number of employees	4,600
Website	www.valio.com

Valio Ltd (Finnish: Valio Oy) is a Finnish manufacturer of dairy products and one of the largest companies in Finland. Valio's products include cheese, powdered ingredients, butter, yogurt and milk. It is Finland's largest milk processor, producing 85% of the country's milk.

Valio's net turnover in 2012 was 2 billion euros. Valio is the market leader in key dairy product categories in Finland and a pioneer as the developer of functional foods. Valio is owned by 18 dairy cooperatives which have about 7,900 milk farmers as members. Valio's product range currently consists of about 1,000 products.

Valio has 15 production facilities in Finland, two in Estonia and a plant for producing processed cheese and a logistics centre in Moscow, Russia. Valio subsidiaries operate in Russia, Sweden, the Baltic, United States and China. International operations account for one third of Valio net turnover.

Valio was founded in 1905 by 17 co-operative dairies. The original name of the company was Voivienti-osuusliike Valio r.l, or "Butter Export Cooperative Valio". The company was originally based in Hanko and the most important market was England.

Valio's activities expanded from butter to other dairy products in 1909, and by the 1920s Valio's marketing in Finland was bigger than abroad.

Artturi Ilmari Virtanen who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was an employee of Valio. The prize was given for benefit which Virtanen's workteam brought with AIV-fodder.

In 2001, Valio launched a lactose-free milk drink which is not sweet like HYLA milk but has the fresh taste of ordinary milk. Valio patented the chromatographic separation method to remove lactose. Valio also markets these products in Sweden, Estonia, and the United States, where the company says ultrafiltration is used. In Belgium the products were present under the Valio brand until 2013, but the name changed after Valio sold their Belgian subsidiary in 2012. The brand is now called Dilea and the drink is still made using the Valio process.