KMF forays into Pune market with milk brand Nandini

Milma, Kerala’s much-preferred milk brand, owned by Kerala Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation, has started the online sale of its products in Thiruvananthapuram. Milma products will reach the doorsteps of consumers through a food delivery app ‘AM Needs’.

Milma has associated with a private company for launching this new venture to deliver milk and milk products like curd and butter. This is the company’s first of its kind venture in south India.

Kallada Ramesh, District Chairman of Milma, said, “Milma is one of the widely-used dairy products in the state. Consumers can order dairy products through the app ‘AM needs’ without paying any delivery charge. They could give orders for the respective product on the previous evening and it would be delivered between 5:00 am – 8:00 am. As per the consumer’s convenience, they can set the delivery timing. The payment of the product will be through online.”

“The delivery boys will collect the products from the nearest Milma Supper Shoppe and other booths. Initially, we had launched a trial run in the city limits, which received massive public support. Thus, we had decided to extend the service to rural areas with the help of marketing hubs. The product will be delivered in a thermal bag at the doorstep of the consumers and the delivery boys will also give an alarm on their mobile phones. In the second phase, we will provide Milma ice-creams for the consumers,” Ramesh added.

Parag Milk Foods Ltd., one of the largest private dairy company in India, has collaborated with ColoPlus AB, a Swedish research organization to launch its first 100 percent natural immunity booster called GO Colo Power in India. This strategic collaboration enables Parag Milk Foods to strengthen its offerings in the health and nutrition segment, which further reiterates its leadership in the value added products category.

Made from the first milk of cows just after calving, Colo Power is enriched with immunoglobulins and probiotics and has the same goodness equivalent to that of a mother’s first milk. Go Colo Power, a product in powder form, which can be mixed into porridge, contains high colostrum values which helps fight diseases like AIDS, diarrhea, etc that reduce the body’s immuno-defensive powers. The use of colostrum helps to build long-term immunity and improves and strengthens the digestive system.

Highlighting the need for Colo Power, Conny Hagman, CEO, ColoPlus said, “Colostrum is rich in essential immunoglobulins and nutrients that helps in increasing the resistance to diseases. The health benefits of this milk is not just limited to the new borns but is beneficial for people of all age groups. Earlier you could only get Colostrum in a capsule or pure powder form, which could not be completely absorbed completely by the body; but now with Colo Power, one can get the same benefits of Colostrum in food form, as a porridge, and with our patented technology, it provides much higher absorption. Colo Power is also good in taste, easier to prepare and has a longer shelf life. Swedish Embassy was instrumental in linking us with a high quality and reputed partner like PMFL that aims to provide health benefits to the citizens of India, a key step towards improving public health.”

Elaborating on the association, Devendra Shah, Chairman, Parag Milk Foods said, “The launch Colo Power by Parag Milk Foods is the reflection of responsibility of giving back to the society. We are the first company to create a unique colostrum-based health food, which provides long-term immunity not just to ill people but also helps to build preventive immunity for one’s lifetime with its high immunoglobulin content. We have established an elaborate mechanism to collect colostrum milk from dairy farmers which not only provides an avenue to use the first milk which otherwise would have gone waste, but also provides them much higher returns. This high value colostrum is then converted into Go Colo Power by using the patented technology. It is scientifically proven that the colostrum present in Colo Power helps in increasing the immunity of patients suffering from Cancer, Diarrhea, apart from building one’s long-term immunity.”

Colo Power is available in 200 gms and is priced at Rs 750. The product will be available in e-commerce platforms and all metro cities.

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.

Dairy startup Happy Cow Dairy Co has raised a seed funding of about Rs 4 crore from a group of angel investors including the former executive at Citi Bank and serial entrepreneur Mahendra Mehta and others. The Mumbai-based startup will use the capital to further expand operations.

Founded in November 2017 by Sarad Garodia, former Head of Britannia’s Dairy division, Happy Cow Dairy aggregates milk from dairy farmers by building milk collection centres enabled with technology near milk farms in Maharashtra and provides them in bulk to dairy corporations such as Schreiber Dynamix Dairy.

Happy Cow Dairy currently has about 20 milk collection centres in Maharashtra's Pune and Ahmednagar belts, complete with refrigeration units, weighing scales and testing equipment to ensure collection of high-quality milk. The startup has connected procures milk from about 600 farmers across villages in these areas.

Sarad Garodia, Founder of Happy Cow Dairy said, “We currently collect about 20,000 litres per day in our centres while Maharashtra alone collects about 2 crore litres per day. So we have a long way to go,”. Each centre enables a collection of about 2000 litres of milk per day.”

Within 4 months of operations, the firm has racked up Rs 6 crore in revenues and is looking to use the capital to set up to 150 centres over the 2 years. “We will close this year with about 50 centres at least. Eventually, I’d like Happy Cow Dairy to have set up about 250 centres across key milk producing zones in India,” Garodia said.

Happy Cow Dairy is targeting a turnover of Rs 150 crore by FY20.

Global equipment and process technology provider GEA is planning to set up production facility in Gujarat.

According to the release, GEA has got an offer from AmulFed Dairy, a unit of Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), to build milk production facility in Gandhinagar.

“We will provide AmulFed with a hygienically-superior plant that will deliver peak performance. The AmulFed milk powder plant at Gandhinagar will not be just the largest in Asia but it will also be the most environment friendly,” said Abhay Chaudhari, Country Managing Director, GEA- India Cluster.

The order, worth ‘lower double-digit million-euro’, is for setting up a new turnkey dairy plant for the production of 150 tonne per day of skim milk powder and 120 tonne per day of dairy whitener and baby food, GEA said in a release.

The milk powder plant is scheduled to begin production in 2018.

The plant, to be installed on a turnkey basis by GEA, will process around 90,000 litres per hour of milk to produce multiple value-added products.

CavinKare has launched India's 'first' ready to serve fruit milkshake.

"We are the first to enter the fruit milkshake segment," shared CK Ranganathan, CMD, CavinKare.

"In the market, flavoured milk is available only with flavour of apple or flavour of mango.

There is no combination of milk, honey and real fruits available in the market. It is a tricky product; cannot be developed easily," added Ranganathan.

So, far the firm has invested Rs 40 crore in milkshakes and has plans to invest another Rs 30 crore to expand fruit milkshakes.

The product will have a shelf life of six months without preservatives.

Cavin's Fruit Milkshake are available in mango, apple and guava which will be priced at Rs 25 for a 200 ml pack.

Cavin's Fruit Milkshake was launched across Tamil Nadu and the company said it was planning to cover the rest of the southern states in three months followed by pan-India coverage by the end of this financial year.

CavinKare, a Rs 1,200 crore turnover FMCG company, handles various portfolios including shampoo, hair wash powder, fairness creams, hair colours, dairy and retail salon products. 

The Rs 760 crore IPO of Mumbai based Parag Milk Foods was subscribed 10 per cent on the first day of the issue.

The offer received bids for 19, 71,385 shares against the total issue size of 1, 91,85,714 shares, data available with the NSE till 1700 hrs showed, reported PTI.

Parag Milk is looking to raise around Rs 760 crore through the IPO, whose price band has been fixed at Rs 220-227 per share.

The category reserved for qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) was subscribed 13 per cent, non institutional investors 3 per cent and retail investors 15 per cent.

Parag Milk has already got commitments for shares worth Rs 343 crore from anchor investors.

The offer comprises fresh issue of equity shares worth Rs 300 crore and an offer for sale of over 2 crore equity shares.

The proceeds would be utilised towards expansion and modernisation as well as investment in its subsidiary.

Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Ltd, JM Financial Institutional Securities Ltd, IDFC Securities Ltd and Motilal oswal, Parag Milk FoodsInvestment Advisors Private Ltd are the book running lead managers for the offer.

Shares of Parag Milk are proposed to be listed on BSE and NSE.