"We aim to open over 1,500 company owned outlets in Delhi/NCR by 2020": RadheyShyam Dixit

Tell us about the brand journey of dairy segment. Also what is your take on current dairy segment in India?

Established in 1989 at Bulandshahr, Ananda Dairy was set up by the visionary Mr. Radhey Shyam Dixit during the Phase-III of Operation Flood, also known as the White Revolution of India. What began in a small outlet almost two decades ago, has now grown to an autonomous private body, with an annual turnover of INR 1,500 crore (FY 2018-19). The company was solely established with a vision to positively contribute to build a healthy and happy nation by providing customers with international quality & food products at an affordable price.Ananda’s ubiquitous slogan “AnandKaro” defines everything that the brand stands for – Health, goodness and unbridled joy; brought to life through a basket of fresh, pure and nutritious dairy products directly from farm to fork.

Today, Gopaljee Ananda Brand has an inbuilt processing capacity of 12 lac litres milk in a day,of which an average of 8 lac litres of milk is collected from dairy farmers. Moreover, 3 lac dairy farmers in over 5,000 villages in Uttar Pradesh, further build up Ananda’s extensive supply network. The company is growing consistently at a fast rate of 20% in an industry that itself has a growth rate of 10%. The group has plans to double its revenue by generating a turnover of INR 3,230 crore in the next five years.

It is certain to say that the dairy sector plays a crucial role in rural economic development and contributes in generating employment for over 72 million people. With India, being the leading producer of milk in the world, it is expected to achieve the ambitious goal of doubling farm income by 2022. Furthermore, the agriculture sector in India is likely to generate better momentum in the next few years, especially withthe growing use of genetically modified crops that is expected to improve the yield for Indian farmers.

Kindly shed light on your current distribution channel. Going forward, what would be the strategies to scale up the distribution?

Currently, Ananda is focussed in expanding its base in its key Northern states, such as Delhi/NCR, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. In the past six months, we have opened over 400 stores in Delhi/ NCR, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. In February we unveiled 105 company owned stores, in Delhi/NCR on a single day. This was followed by another record breaking single day launch of 200 company outlets in June 2018. Ananda is determined to give its consumers a holistic experience, by opening up the company’s entire fresh and wide dairy produce range, including confectionary and bakery items for them to purchase.

The company is also working towards building products which are not only healthy but delicious as well, including Haldi Milk, Lactose Free Milk in poly pack, etc. With one common goal at Ananda, we all believe in introducing innovative and consumer oriented products.

These days milk subscription business is gaining a lot of momentum. Do you have any plans to venture into the same?

Ananda as a brand is solely established on the vision to positively contribute to build a healthy and happy nation by providing customers with international quality & food products at an affordable price. With over 300 company outlets in Delhi/NCR and around 100 outlets in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, Ananda is working towards ensuring easy accessibility to all customers. With these stores, Ananda is aiming to give its consumers a holistic experience, by opening up the company’s entire fresh and wide dairy produce range, including confectionary and bakery items for them to purchase, at the closest. Moreover, well-trained professionals, who are able to guide consumers to the right products, based on their unique dietary requirements, are staffing these stores.

What are the major challenges as far as milk retailing is concerned

For Ananda, the biggest challenge with milk retailing is restriction in delivering fresh products and non-assurance of fairness for the farmers & milk producers. Our vision to deliver only the best and most nutritious products to our consumers, which only comes with freshness. Moreover, as per our farmer policy we are determined to ensure a platform of economic independence to our farmers, and in turn, give them a new horizon of dreams, hope, and life.

Who do you see as your biggest competition within the same space?

At Ananda, we are constantly expanding our product portfolio to offer a range of nutritious and healthy products to our consumers. At present we have a portfolio of over 75 dairy and dairy-based products and are constantly investing in expanding this to cater to the diverse taste of our consumers. Our only focus is to deliver the best to the consumers and not compete with others in the market.

At last, kindly highlight your growth plans?

We aim to strengthen our retail presence by opening over 1,500 company owned outlets in Delhi/NCR by 2020. We have already opened over 400 stores in Delhi/NCR in line with the brand’s vision to give consumers direct access to a wide variety of nutritious and pure milk. We are further widening our reach in Northern parts of India such as Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and have opened over 100 shops in the past couple of months. We are additionally planning to foray into international markets like The United States of America and Canada to deliver and make our quality dairy products available across the globe. With this, we are swiftly moving towards spreading the goodness of Ananda’s products across the world.