Danone's product brands include Activia, Volvic, Evian, Shape, Actimel and Badoit.

IBM is replacing Danone's existing network with the aim of increasing the flexibility and responsiveness of Danone's business-to-business (B2B) commercial transactions to help improve the overall customer experience.

Danone said the IBM system would make it easier for the group to respond to the individual needs of its customers, which include large supermarkets.

IBM's Sterling Collaboration Network is being rolled out across Danone's global business units, each including multiple sales and distribution points and factories.

The large-scale deployment involves the onboarding of up to 600 trading partners to the IBM network and the management of nine million messages a year.