?Dairy companies find hassle free way to pay the farmers

Dairy farm Himalayan Creamery has tied up with tech startup Mr Milkman to launch a co-branded application for milk subscription and delivery. Few other firms such as Milk Mantra, Whyte Farms, Amlaan A2 Milk, Go4Life and Milk Valley Farms have also collaborated with Mr Milkman for hassle-free operations and smooth delivery. 

Samarth Setia, Founder of Mr Milkman, said, "With this partnership, we aim to improve delivery services and manage milk subscriptions. We are confident that Mr Milkman's technology will ensure operations in a smoother and more organised manner."

Mr Milkman’s cloud-based 'SaaS platform' will be offering Punjab-based Himalayan Creamery with automated processes, which will enable them to track subscriptions, revenue, sales growth, payments and customer consumption patterns. 

The application provides features like order-tracking and delivery, inventory management, and reverse logistics for glass bottles.

Deepak Gupta, Founder and CEO, Himalayan Creamery, stated, "One of the greatest challenges in the dairy industry is managing inventory and logistics. Our partnership with Mr Milkman will assist us to streamline our logistics and inventory management and allow us to focus on production and growth."

Founded in 2016, Himalayan Creamery is located in Patiala, Punjab. Unlike an aggregator, it is home to 350 Holstein Friesian and Jersey cows that daily produce unadulterated milk of more than 4,000 litres.

The Gurugram-based dairy startup Country Delight has raised $10 million in a funding round led by venture capital firm Matrix Partners. The round has also seen participation from the startup's existing investor Orios Venture Partners.

The fresh capital will be used by Country Delight to scale up its operations across India.

Chakradhar Gade, Co-Founder of Country Delight, said, "This is the first step for us to achieve the goal of building one of India's largest consumer brands that are direct-to-home."

Founded in 2013, Country Delight provides delivery of fresh milk, paneer, curd, and ghee to homes through a subscription model. Currently, the firm is catering to customers in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Pune.

Avnish Bajaj, Managing Director, Matrix Partners India, stated, "We have been tracking Country Delight for more than a year now and have been very impressed with Chakradhar and Nitin’s vision for it backed by strong on-the-ground execution and customer feedback." 

ITC, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) major, has forayed into the ready-to-drink milk-based beverages market in India under the brand Sunfeast Wonderz Milk. With this launch, the company has expanded its dairy portfolio beyond ghood, pouch milk and the curd business.

The new brand will start operations in the states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Both of them together account for nearly 25% of the national market.

Hemant Malik, Divisional Chief Executive, ITC Ltd's Food Division, said, "We are targeting young adults who are looking for a drink that could be based on milk, but with a different taste."

"The launch of Sunfeast Wonderz Milk dairy beverages reflects ITC’s focus in delighting consumers with superior and differentiated new products. The ready-to-drink milk beverage market has seen a high growth with a paradigm shift to healthier beverages," he added.

Diversified conglomerate ITC Ltd is looking to expand its dairy portfolio by launching the paneer and milkshakes segments within two months.

Earlier, ITC had entered into the dairy segment with the launch of milk and ghee in select markets. The company has recently introduced milk and curd for the Kolkata market.

Hemant Malik, Divisional Chief Executive (foods) of ITC, said, "We are going to launch paneer for the Kolkata market and milkshakes pan India within two months."

ITC's milk, ghee, paneer and curd would be sold under the 'Aashirvaad' brand while its milkshakes will be sold under a different brand.

The company started the foods division in 2002, and initiated the dairy business at Munger, Bihar.

Malik further said, "We have been selling milk in markets of Munger, Patna and Bhagalpur in Bihar. Now, we have come to Kolkata. The company had been selling ghee in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Delhi."

French foods giant Danone has decided to exit the dairy business in India. The company which entered India in 2010 is rationalising its product portfolio and has discontinued stock keeping units (SKUs), which have been making a minority contribution to its overall business in India that include the UHT (ultra high treatment) and fresh dairy products.

In line with this, Danone’s factory at Rai near Delhi has discontinued production.

Danone under the leadership of its India MD Rodrigo Lima, plans to focus on its nutrition business that it had acquired from Wockhardt in 2012, for about Rs 1,500 crore. In 2015, the company consolidated its India business by merging the two portfolios (dairy and nutrition).

Danone was incurring losses on its dairy business which includes milk, flavoured yogurt, buttermilk, cold coffee, curd and smoothies and could not sustain maintaining its margin. The company was unable to compete with national giants like Amul, Mother Dairy and other regional brands.

In a statement, Danone said it has decided to rationalise its product portfolio in India to allow for accelerated investments and a sharper focus on growing its nutrition portfolio which is more than 90% of the business. The company said Danone has a stated goal to double its nutrition business in India by 2020 in line with its global mission to ‘bring health through food to as many people as possible’ and this renewed focus is key to achieving this goal.

Danone India Spokesperson said “We have great ambitions for our business in India and remain committed to invest and grow in India through well-established brands such as Protinex, Aptamil, Farex, Dexolac and Neocate. In order to maximise growth opportunities, we are continuously analysing our portfolio and sharpening our focus to accelerate investments on the best performing categories and products. For this reason, we will discontinue some of the SKU’s sold in India. Our focus is to bring nutritionally superior and relevant products to India, and 2017 has been a testimony of that with 10 new launches including some from our global portfolio”.

Maharashtra government has decided to increase the milk procurement prices by Rs 3 per litre to help milk dairy farmers. However, the retail rates would remain unchanged.

State Dairy Development Minister, Mahadev Jankar, said, "The new rates will come into effect from June 21. But there will be no change in the milk rates for the retail customers."

He said, "The decision is aimed at benefiting the farmers, but its burden will not be passed on to retail customers in the state."

The decision to increase the prices was taken based on the recommendations made by a committee appointed by the state government to revise the milk procurement rates.

Jankar said, "As per the new rates, cow milk will now be purchased by dairies at Rs 27 per litre as against Rs 24 per litre previously. Similarly, buffalo milk will now be purchased at Rs 36 per litre as against Rs 33 per litre."

A senior official from the state Dairy Development Department said the state government receives funds up to Rs 25-30 crore from the Centre for various works in the field of dairy development.

According to the officer, "Now these funds will be passed on to the dairies,which will purchase milk at higher rates, but sell it to the customers as per the existing rates. These funds will fill the gap created after the price hike."

Prabhatsakhi’ is a milk oriented initiative by Prabhat Dairy that runs operations through entire Ahmednagar. Through this program, Prabhat Dairy wants to give an aim to the life of women at grass root level, change their pace of lives by providing employment support and boost their economic development. Under this program women Self Help Group will be formed at the village level and they will be trained on the different aspect of Dairy. For example, production of Fodder, making of Sileage bags, running of milk collection center etc.

Currently, villages have intermediaries for supply of fodder and other necessary requirements. These intermediaries always charge farmer high for their services. This women self-help group will act as an intermediaries between the farmer and the company and hence the farmer will get better service and cost effective solutions. Prabhat will help these self-help groups in getting the desired materials as per there requirement.

Initially, the villages that already have a Prabhat establishment shall be given priority. In the first stage, the talukas of Shrirampur, Nevasa, Rahuri, Rahata, Kopargaon, Shevgaon, Pathardi, Sangamner and Vaijapur shall be given priority. Empowering Women and increasing their standard of living by providing them with a guaranteed source of income is the aim of ‘Prabhatsakhi’.

Heritage Foods Ltd has reported a twofold jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 10.71 crore in the first quarter of the fiscal on higher sales from dairy and bakery business, reported PTI.

The Hyderabad-based firm had posted a net profit of Rs 5.29 crore in the same quarter last year.

Total income increased to Rs 578.45 crore in the April- June quarter of the 2015-16 fiscal as against Rs 505.76 crore in the year-ago period, it said in a BSE filing.

The income from the dairy business rose to Rs 436.77 crore from Rs 382.64 crore, while the revenue from the retail business rose to Rs 133.93 crore from Rs 117.68 crore in the corresponding period last year.

However, the overall expenses of the company increased to Rs 558.89 crore from Rs 495.84 crore year-ago.

Besides dairy and retail, the company has three other business segments -- bakery, agriculture and renewable energy.

The company's scrip settled at Rs 431.40 on BSE, up 1.34 per cent from the previous close.