Danone to invest Rs 150 crore to expand in India

French company Danone is planning to invest Rs 150 crore to expand its manufacturing facility at Lalru towm, about 35 km from Chandigarh in Punjab.

The company will set up a spray dryer unit at Lalru to manufacture global range of infant nutrition products, shared Laurent Marcel, MD of Danone India, reported PTI.

"India is a strategic market for us with immense potential in value added dairy, infant nutrition as well as medical nutrition. Over the last five years, Danone has made significant investments in India to develop an innovative and quality driven product portfolio," he added.

“For Danone, 'Make in India' does not means to only manufacture in India, but to also innovate in India to develop best in class nutrition products tailored for the Indian market,” added Marcel.

In last 3 years, Danone has initiated a programme called 'Academilk' under which more than 5,000 farmers have been trained on milk quality.

"New bulk milk coolers have been introduced to improve direct linkage with farmers in Punjab for procuring high quality milk.

"Apart from infrastructure support, continuous farmer education programmes are also carried out to ensure superior milk with better microbiological standards and control on antibiotics," the company said.

In India, Danone operates in dairy and Life nutrition segments. Danone Dairy has UHT and fresh dairy products such as mishtidoi, chaas, lassi, dahi, flavoured yoghurts and smoothies.

Danone's life nutrition business (Nutricia), offers products for pregnant mothers, infants, young children as well as adults, under brands like Farex, Protinex, Dexolac and Nusobee, company release said.