Borden Dairy

Borden Dairy's January 2020 bankruptcy came two months after Dean Foods, demonstrating the dairy industry's structural crisis. The 163-year-old company with the iconic Elsie the Cow mascot couldn't survive the same forces killing Dean Foods: declining consumption, plant-based alternatives, and retailer power. Borden was smaller than Dean Foods but faced identical structural challenges. The company emerged from bankruptcy in 2020 after selling to Capitol Peak Partners and KKR, but the fundamentals of dairy decline persist.