The New Delhi-based subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board, Mother Dairy India Ltd, aims to have yearly revenues of $1 billion (about Rs3,930 crore) by 2010, up 45.55% from its current annual sales of Rs2,700 crore.
A Mother Dairy milk van in front of one of its outlets in New Delhi
To achieve this ambitious target, the company, which is mainly associated with dairy products, has drawn out a large-scale expansion plan that will include going into more markets with new products and in new categories.
“Till three years ago, we were known as a Delhi-centric brand but now we are expanding to other cities and towns across the country with a host of new product offerings,” said Mother Dairy chief executive officer Paul Thachil.
In the past two years, the company has invested around Rs150 crore in procurement and manufacturing infrastructure and is pumping in more money to achieve its set target.
Refusing to divulge details, Thachil said: “Mother Dairy plans to enter the frozen fruits and food segment. This will be done under our existing frozen vegetable brand Safal.” He also said by summer, Mother Dairy “will have added more flavours to its ice cream portfolio”.
In 2006, Mother Dairy entered the ready-to-eat foods market with the launch of Hot Snack and expanded its oil brand Dhara to include a rice bran oil in the South. It also entered the olive oil space with the launch of its brand, Daroliva. The new launches and expansion drive helped the company grow sales by 22% last year, Thachil claimed. Dairy products, which contribute about 65% of sales, are growing at about 18%, he said.
Mother Dairy also recently launched B-Activ plain yogurt and lassi, part of the so-called probiotic foods category. Probiotics are dietary supplements containing potentially beneficial bacteria or yeasts.
According to Dairy India Yearbook 2007, a trade journal, Indian dairy is likely to grow to Rs5.20 trillion by 2011 from about Rs3 trillion now.
The growth has been driven by—and has attracted—companies such as Nestle India Ltd, Yakult Danone India Pvt. Ltd and Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (which owns the Amul brand) that have expanded their offerings and invested in a broader reach.
Yakult Danone is investing Rs136 crore in manufacturing facilities near New Delhi; Nestle is upgrading its existing ones in Moga (Punjab) and Samalkha (Haryana).
Thachil said the company is looking beyond cities. “In the next two-three years, we would like to take Mother Dairy to rural markets,” he said. “Though,before that we will have to have logistics such as cold chains in place.”
On 12 November, Mother Dairy launched a new corporate campaign featuring its array of dairy brands. “We have traditionally advertised our products separately,” said Thachil. “While we will continue to do so, we thought weneeded a mother campaign that will represent our growing portfolio and help extend our dairy equity to the rest of our products.”
The campaign is aired during the India-Pakistan cricket series, where the firm is one of the on-ground sponsors.