Land O'Lakes Inc., Arden Hills, Minn., said that its Dairy Foods business segment in 2013 generated record pretax earnings of $75 million on sales of $4.5 billion, up 8% from 2012. The results were driven by improved margins on milk powders and butter in Global Dairy Ingredients along with records in sales volume and earnings in the Retail Foods and Foodservice businesses.

Yesterday the dairy cooperative announced record annual sales for the entire business of $14.2 billion, up 4.4% from the prior year, and record net earnings of almost $306 million, a 27% increase over the prior year. The farmer-owned, Fortune 200 food and agriculture cooperative has more than doubled annual sales and grown net earnings by more than 330% over the last seven years, according to the company.

Overall results for 2013 also included a record return of $147 million to members, representing a 30% increase in patronage compared to 2012. Read the complete 2013 Land O'Lakes Inc. Annual Report and related financial data on its website.

Nestle, Arla, Kraft say dairy sales increased in 2013

Year-end reports from other dairies include:

• Nestle’s revenues rose 2.7% to 92.2 billion Swiss francs (about $103.9 billion) in 2013. Worldwide milk and ice cream revenues rose 5.8%.
• Denmark-based Arla said its 2013 revenue rose nearly 17% to 73.6 billion Danish kroner (about $13.5 billion).
• Dallas-based Dean Foods Co. said 2013 revenues declined to $9 billion.
• Last year’s revenues at Northfield, Ill.-based Kraft Foods were down slightly to $18.2 billion. Sales of cheese rose 2.5% to $3.9 billion.
• Westby Cooperative Creamery, Westby, Wis., said 2013 revenues were a record $55 million.