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Ludovic Meilhac

Expert PartnerConnecticut – Darien

Ludovic Meilhac

Expert PartnerConnecticut – Darien

Brings hands-on executive experience driving operational excellence—including procurement, supply-chain management, and lean transformation—to advise companies in the food, beverage, and agricultural sectors

Ludovic is a sourcing and operations leader, drawing on nearly 20 years of hands-on experience in the food and beverage industry. Throughout his executive tenure, he led procurement departments through the challenges of sourcing direct materials from heavily regulated, commoditized, and customized markets, achieving successful operating free-cash-flow improvement while securing supply and innovating and improving quality.

Since joining McKinsey, Ludovic has led strategy development, comprehensive operational turnarounds, and supply-chain transformations across the agriculture and food and beverage sector. He has worked with clients all over the world, including Europe, Latin America, and North America.

Whether the goal is reducing operational complexity or developing a comprehensive sourcing strategy, Ludovic is focused on helping executives boost performance and drive growth.

Examples of his recent client work include the following:

  • leading an operational turnaround for a confectionary company across procurement, complexity management, and design-to-value, resulting in substantial growth in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization
  • helping a nonalcoholic-beverage company develop and implement a cost-reduction program across formula, packaging, logistics, and manufacturing processes
  • building a strategy for a dairy company to source agricultural and transformed commodities considering geographical origin, supply availability, transformation cost, and consumer preference
  • leading an effort for a milk-formula company to set a world sourcing strategy for milk and dairy ingredients
  • building growth strategy to enter new dairy-derivative segments for milk cooperatives
  • organizing sourcing for a multinational bakery across packaging and ingredients
  • capturing procurement synergies in the context of M&A for major food companies

Ludovic speaks at industry events globally, such as the IDFA Forum and the Transparency IQ Forum. He is a Six Sigma Black Belt.

Published work

What is top of mind for dairy executives in 2024?,” McKinsey & Company, April 2024

Top priorities for dairy executives in 2023,” McKinsey & Company, March 2023

How to stay cool as competition heats up in ice cream and yogurt,” McKinsey & Company, May 2022

What’s next for dairy?,” McKinsey & Company, March 2022

How dairy executives are navigating recovery in 2022,” McKinsey & Company, March 2022

Benchmarking in the dairy industry: Strengthening performance amid double volatility,” McKinsey & Company, May 2021

What US dairy executives learned from the pandemic,” McKinsey & Company, May 2021

What's ahead for the dairy industry,” McKinsey & Company, May 2021

What’s next for the North American dairy industry?,” McKinsey & Company, August 2020

Disruption in the dairy aisle,” McKinsey & Company, March 2020

Five insights into the views and behaviors of the US dairy consumer,” McKinsey & Company, September 2019

The evolving perspectives and strategies of dairy executives,” McKinsey & Company, July 2019

A winning growth formula for dairy,” McKinsey & Company, March 2019

Recipe for success for sourcing in the food industry,” McKinsey & Company, April 2017

Past Experience

Coca-Cola Company
Senior director of productivity initiatives

Glaceau
Vice president of procurement

Danone
Director, sourcing and supplier development

Education

The Wharton School
MBA, finance

Mines ParisTech
MS, civil engineering

INA P-G / AgroParisTech
MS, agricultural engineering