Dairy Product Keventeres makes Debut In Dubai

Milkbasket, a daily grocery delivery service, on Tuesday announced “voice-buying” of grocery. The service can be used on Google Assistant and will soon be available on Amazon Alexa.

The “voice buying” feature works seamlessly, reducing the order time reduced by over 50%, the company said in a statement.

Ashish Goel, co-founder & CTO of Milkbasket, said, “Technology is the backbone of Milkbasket, and over the years we have introduced many innovations, such as no checkout, one tap buying, among others, that have helped us in making the user’s journey more convenient than before. Voice buying is one of our best offerings till date, that makes the user journey seamless.”

Earlier this year, Milkbasket raised its Series A funding of $7 million from Kalaari Capital and BeeNext.

America’s No.1 cheese brand Kraft seems to be pulling out from Indian retail market as the cheese maker has not refilled the stock in the stores for a few months. Kraft Heinz India continues to invest in Complan, its milk drinks brand, for which it has roped in Sourav Ganguly as brand ambassador.

Multiple sources in the industry and trade said the company is withdrawing from the cheese market here. The development comes a few months after French foods giant Danone announced its exit from the dairy in India. In response to TOI’s query on Kraft Heinz’s withdrawal from the Indian cheese market, a spokesperson responded, “Kraft Heinz has no comments.”

The Kraft Heinz Company is the fifth-largest food and beverage player in the world with several billion-dollar brands, which include Planters, Jell-O, Capri Sun, Classico, Kool-Aid, Lunchables, Maxwell House, Ore-Ida, Oscar Mayer and Philadelphia. The $26-billion company was formed by the merger of Kraft Foods Group and Heinz in 2015.

Although the company has not officially communicated its plans on cheese to distributors, trade sources said, as of now, Kraft Heinz is not taking further orders for production of cheese in India.

According to the company’s expectations, Kraft cheese, which was launched with the ‘Say Cheese’ campaign, has not performed in the Indian Market. The brand was priced at a near 40% premium to existing brands like Amul and Britannia, which, industry observers said, could have been counter-productive.

On the other hand, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (the maker of Amul) and Parag Milk Foods (owner of Go Cheese) are expanding their production capacities to cater to the growing demand.

Branded cheese is a roughly Rs 2,000-crore market in India, growing at 10-12% annually. Amul is the leading brand with a volume share of around 71%, followed by Britannia (about 17%) and Parag Milk Foods (around 6%).

Strong development projections given by the Parag Milk management during the experts meet sparked a rally in the shares of dairy product manufacturers on Monday. Analysts are optimistic on the sector, with expectations of a normal monsoon and fall in milk procurement prices.

Shares of Parag Milk Food gained 9 per cent to Rs 337 while Umang Dairies and Prabhat Dairy gained 5 per cent each to close at Rs 90.75 and Rs 179, respectively. Tasty Dairy Specialities gained 14 per cent to Rs 49.

The Parag management revealed its Vision 2020 wherein it plans to achieve revenue of Rs 2,700-3,000 crore by FY 2020, implying a CAGR of 18-24 per cent over the period FY 2018-20.

“India’s organised dairy sector is up for accelerated growth with present share at just around 20 per cent of total dairy sector, given higher disposable incomes and low penetration of value added products (VAP),” said Mehul Mehta, senior analyst, Sharekhan.

With the Parag management significantly increasing guidance for revenue growth and operating profit margin, analysts increased their earnings estimates and expect the company’s bottom-line to register 40 per cent CAGR over FY 2018-20, led by higher contribution to revenue from value-added products.

“Rising innovation agenda, scaling up presence in health & nutrition segment, and increasing the distribution network along with a professional management team would provide greater visibility to Parag’s earnings trajectory going forward,” said Harit Kapoor, analyst, IDFC Securities.

“Further, improved profitability and minimal capex requirement will drive positive free cash flow and uptick in overall return profile, thereby driving re-rating in the stock” he added.

The stock of Parag Milk Foods has been range bound for the past few months. It is back on investors’ radar considering the company’s increasing share of value-added products, lower milk procurement cost and cheaper stock valuation.

Milk procurement prices have corrected by 8-10 per cent in March quarter from their peak in June 2017 quarter. Milk prices are expected to stabilise at lower levels for next few months considering lower fodder prices as well as decline in global SMP prices.

Analysts say they expect lower input prices to aid margin expansion of dairy firms. The trend may persist given the prognosis of a normal rainfall in the current year as well.

“With monsoons expected to be normal and the government push likely in the next few months, the firms in the dairy products and other agri related firms would get a lot more business opportunities than in the previous few years,” industry body ASSOCHAM said recently.

India’s dairy manufacturer Ananda today said it plans to invest Rs 10 crore to launch about 150 stores in Kanpur by financial year 2018-19, as part of its Rs 500 crore investments committed in Uttar Pradesh.

In addition to its six already present in the city, Ananda has revealed two company owned company operated (COCO) stores.

The company, which is stepping up for expanding its retail presence rapidly to augment its market share, last month announced opening 500 retail COCO outlets by the end of next fiscal in states like Delhi-NCR, Haryana, UP and Punjab.

"We see a huge potential in the Kanpur market and are certain that the city will play a huge role in our expansion plans for Uttar Pradesh," Ananda Group Chairman Radhey Shyam Dixit said.

The company expressed its plans to launch an average of 10 COCO stores on a monthly basis.

Headquartered in Noida, Ananda has a current production capacity of over 12 lakh litres of milk a day. It sells over 50 products and has presence in most of the diary products, except ice creams.

Indian major Dairy player Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable is facing top level management crisis as the company's top occupying ranks have quit in the middle of the last year.

The company which holds one of the largest market share in the country registers sales of around Rs 8,000 crore.

Mother Dairy has lost some of its top executives after its former MD & Director S Nagarajan last year due to undisclosed reasons.

Mother Dairy’s head of dairy business Subhashis Basu put in his papers around the same time to join Indore-based Prataap Snacks as Chief Operating Officer (COO).

The company later appointed Sanjiv Khanna, who was serving as PepsiCo’s CEO of SBC Beverages Ghana (marketers and manufacturers of PepsiCo products), to replace Nagarajan.

Sources said other senior executives to follow in the footsteps of their colleagues are Meghnad Mitra, who served as group CFO at Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable, Vikas Dogra, the company’s head of sales, and Maheswaran Rajaram, responsible for regional sales. T S R Murali, head of R&D, may also be on his way out, sources said.

When asked about the development, a Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable spokesperson said, “Mother Dairy is a professionally managed company with a leading position in the dairy sector. While we do not wish to comment on specific changes, it will be sufficient to say that movement of professionals is an industry wide phenomenon. Strong HR practices and the brand name of Mother Dairy is enabling us to get the right mix of talent for accelerated growth in alignment with the organisational strategy.”

Start-up dairy firm MilkLane said it has raised Rs 27 crore in a 'pre-Series A' funding round from a clutch of investors. Company, which has raised the fund from Pioneering Ventures, Schreiber Foods and ultra-high net worth families, will utlise the capital for expansion purpose.

In a statement, MilkLane said it will utlise the fund to increase its network of milk collection centers and strengthen its digital and analytics capabilities in the supply chain.

MilkLane COO Gaurav Haran said “We intend to create a pan-India network of industrial production units, village level bulk coolers and introduce IT-enabled solutions to provide a fresh, safe and steady supply of high quality milk to our partners in the industry. MilkLane started its milk collection operations in January 2017 at Kuppam in Andhra Pradesh, and within a span of six months reached an initial milestone of 85,000 litres per day”.

The company procures milk from selected dairy farmers and delivers it to industrial scale off-takers such as industrial processors, FMCG companies and milk product manufacturers.

Maharashtra based milk and dairy products company, Prabhat Dairy Limited is exploring the possibility of setting up unit in Assam.

Chief Marketing Officer and Business Head, Prabhat Dairy Limited, Nidhi Nirmal said “We are exploring the possibility of setting up possessing unit and talks are going on in this regard with the state government. We are eyeing to capture 10 percent of market share by financial year 2019 and firm up the scale in institutional business in Northeast India.The market for UHT (ultra-heat treatment) milk is growing exponentially with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32 percent and the company aims to be a major contributor to the industry. To achieve the growth targets, the Company has planned to leverage its existing presence in the region by expanding its product portfolio. North East India is one of our primary target markets for our national expansion as it is one of the fastest growing in India, especially in Tetra Pak segment. We have strategized our products in line with the local demand as understand the requirements of the region since we already have presence here for a while. The market for UHT is growing fast and so is the demand for Tetra Paks is emerging as a preferred option of milk consumption in the North Eastern states. Our core focus would be to build Strong Consumer Connect as we are looking to launch more products in the region soon. Company will soon launch a range of value added products in Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Assam and firm up its presence in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra”.

Company currently has two plants in Maharashtra with a daily capacity to process 10 lakh litres of milk and produce 30 tonnes of cheese.

By the end of FY 2018, the company plans to enter and firm up its presence in various Northern, Eastern, Western and Central Indian markets, mainly Tier II and Tier III towns with higher disposable incomes.

Provider of milk and other milk products prepared by the Orissa State Cooperative Milk Producers' Federation Limited (OMFED) at customers’ doorsteps on Monday signed a MoU with Grozip, a city-based online grocery service. Grozip will make home delivery of various OMFED products on a phone call or click of a mouse.

Odisha government had asked OMFED to start online marketing of milk and milk products in 2015 after the state-owned dairy board failed to sale huge amount of surplus milk. “Online marketing is the need of the hour and more numbers of customers want to buy products online so we tied up with Grozip.

Managing director of OMFED said “It a sizable costumer base who buy various products like grocery and vegetables from them and now the costumers can get milk through it. OMFED is also going to launch its own mobile APP (application) soon through which customers can directly order milk and milk products.

Anand Mishra, CEO and founder of Grozip  said “We have a customer base of around one lakh in the last one and a half years. We have plans to offers attractive schemes for customers like cash back and free delivery on a minimum order. We get around 60 to 100 orders a day from Cuttack and Bhubaneswar for various grocery items including vegetables. We are also planning to include cooked food in our products soon”.

Meanwhile, the online marketing service launched by Odisha State Poultry Products Co-operative Marketing Federation Ltd (OPOLFED) in 2015 has not been working for last several months.

The Madras High Court today ordered three private milk manufacturers to get their products tested in a certified lab every three months and submit the report. Justice C V Karthikeyan said his July 10 interim order restraining Dairy Development Minister K T Rajendra Balaji from making allegations on quality of the products of the manufacturers without any proof would continue till the disposal of the suits.

The judge was hearing an application filed by the Hatsun Agro Product Ltd, Dodla Dairy Ltd and Vijay Dairy and Farm Products Pvt Ltd. In the application, companies had sought an interim order directing the minister not to make general allegations.

The judge directed the companies to test samples of their products in certified labs every three months and submit the lab reports in the court till the suits were adjudicated.

In their suits, the companies had each claimed Rs one crore damages from the minister over his allegations that they had indulged in adulteration of their products.

Besides seeking the damages, the firms had submitted that the minister's remarks were meant to create a "sense of fear and panic" among consumers and a sense of "disgust and revulsion" on milk and milk products manufactured by private dairies as a whole and their product in particular.

India Leading food and milk company Drupe Food India has launched Lactose-Free Vegan Milk India. Lactose-free milk and milk products are beneficial for people suffering from lactose intolerance. Lactose intolerance is very common, especially in adults. In order to digest lactose properly, the body produces an enzyme called lactase. In people with lactose intolerance, the body stops producing adequate amounts of lactase, causing symptoms such as bloating, cramps, diarrhoea and nausea.

Drupe Food India Founder and COO talked about Lactose free vegan milk and said “Drupe is the first natural real almond milk manufactured in India in bottles without the use of preservatives, sugar or additives or any artificial flavouring substance. As these techniques degrade the food's nutrient content and original flavour, sugar might make it tastier but it brings the immunity down by 50%. It takes the place of important nutrients, hence not allowing the body to consume essential nutrients, children are given sweet- flavoured milk and they are the ones who need the maximum nutrients for growth.”

Drupe food India is a registered start-up company who manufacture 6,000 litres Almond milk on daily basis. Company manufacturing plant is in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Company has recently launched drupe online and offline retail chain. Consumer can buy it online from Amazon.in and drupepower.com

National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) has said its Centre for Analysis and Learning in Livestock and Food (CALF) got Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) recognition for analysis of milk and milk products.

The recognition is given for analysis of various milk and milk products, including packaged pasteurised milk, flavoured milk, sterilised milk, condensed milk, milk powder, cheese, shrikhand, paneer, skimmed milk powder (Grade I and II), pasteurised butter, butter oil, ghee, dahi, yogurt and ice-cream, NDDB said in a release.

Currently, CALF is the only laboratory in the country to receive BIS recognition.

CALF is a multi-disciplinary analytical laboratory of NDDB at Anand in Gujarat.

It offers a range of reliable and accurate analytical services in the field of dairy products, food, fruit and vegetables, water, feed and animal genetics at an affordable cost.

CALF is also a notified referral laboratory for Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for milk and milk products.

Amul, Mother Dairy and other dairy majors' milk and milk products are preparing to increase prices in the coming months and boost the payouts to farmers.

The dairy majors are expecting a sharp drop in the stock of milk products to carry forward to the next fiscal year in April. They plan to raise milk and milk product prices and pass on the gains to farmers to encourage them to increase supplies, so that they can stock up products for the summer months, a lean period for the production of fresh milk.

RS Sodhi, Managing Director, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation that owns the Amul brand, said, "By the end of March, carry forward stock of skimmed milk powder (SMP) will be 50 percent less of last year and hence we might have to again increase farmers' prices, which will impact the price in the market. Consumer should be ready to pay more."

S Nagarajan, Managing Director, Mother Dairy, said the price that the consumer pays for liquid milk could see an upward movement by February. The cooperative has increased its payment to farmers by Rs 3-4 a litre over the past year, he said. The last consumer price revision was in June-July this year, when milk prices were increased by Rs 1 a litre. Private dairies usually follow Amul and Mother Dairy in revising prices.

Kuldeep Saluja, Managing Director of Sterling Agro Industries, which sells dairy products under the Nova brand has predicted that the price of milk products such as buttermilk, butter, ice-cream to increase 5-10 percent by March. He also added that Amul had not increased the price it pays to farmers in 2014-15, when supplies were more than demand, but the situation has changed now.

Sodhi said, "If Amul increases liquid milk prices, then we will too. Now that milk production has slowed and we have low carry-forward stock of milk powder and butter, we are further increasing (procurement) prices."

He added, "Cattle feed and fodder prices have gone up 32-35 percent in the past one year, so an increase in farmers' price is necessary."

Amul had increased the procurement price for cow milk by 10 percent to Rs 30 a litre and buffalo milk to Rs 41-42 a litre in the past one month and may increase it further.

Sodhi said the carry forward stock till date of SMP in the country by dairy cooperatives and private payers was 32,000-35,000 tonnes, compared with 1.25 lakh tonnes a year earlier.

In the summer months, when milk production drops, the dairy sector manufactures liquid milk and other products by diluting milk powder -10 tonnes of SMP is needed to make 1 lakh litres of milk. November to January is the flush season when milk production increases naturally as there is plenty of green fodder available.