Lactalis has agreed to acquire siggis – the U.S. based maker of Icelandic style skyr yogurts with "simple ingredients, not a lot of sugar" – for an undisclosed price.

siggis was founded by Siggi Hilmarsson who, after moving to the U.S. from his native Iceland, began making yogurt in his kitchen in response to American yogurt, which he found too sweet and full of extra ingredients. The recipe was based on skyr, the Icelandic style yogurt Siggi grew up eating in his native Iceland. With seed investment from his former professor, Siggi started selling his yogurt at an outdoor market in downtown Manhattan in 2006. It is now the fastest growing yogurt in conventional grocery. siggis is a top five selling yogurt brand in many mainstream grocery chains including Stop & Shop, Meijer and Publix and recently became the #1 selling yogurt brand overall in Whole Foods1.

siggis will continue operating out of its New York City office and will remain a standalone company under its current senior leadership team, which includes its founder as CEO, and Bart Adlam as President.

"Were excited to join the Lactalis family which offers the opportunity to further fuel our growth," said Siggi Hilmarsson. "Our core values of clean ingredient label and less sugar will remain 100 percent unchanged. Consumers everywher are actively trying to reduce sugar in their diets so our offering has a global relevance."

Bart Adlam added, "siggis topline grew 50% in 2017 and we expect to match this in 2018 as we launch further innovations. We are excited to keep the momentum going with support from the largest dairy player in the world."

"We are delighted to welcome siggis to the Lactalis Group, which further expands our yogurt platform in the U.S. with this unique and fast-growing yogurt brand. We look forward to supporting siggis as it continues to bring its retail partners exceptional dollar growth in the yogurt category," said Emmanuel Besnier, President of the Lactalis Group.