?Hatsun Agro looks for a greenfield project, a farm in Maharashtra

Chennai-headquartered dairy products maker, Hatsun Agro Product Ltd, has entered into a pact with Germany-based, GEA, to set up a Greenfield plant in Tamil Nadu at an investment of Rs 120 crore.

According to a company statement issued by GEA, "Hatsun Agro Product is currently establishing an automated greenfield dairy project at Dharapuram near Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. The company has contracted GEA to install it (the factory) on turnkey basis."

The factory, expected to become operational next year, would have a capacity to produce three lakh litres of milk per day in pouches and 1.50 lakh litre of curd, it said.

The manufacturing unit is expected to be fourth largest plant for the Chennai-based dairy maker. GEA would provide an RO plant for concentration of skimmed milk at the factory. It would also provide specialised equipment like homogenizer and flow components at the factory.

Abhay Chaudhari, Country Managing Director, GEA India Cluster, said, "So far, GEA had been supplying components to HAP and it is a great pleasure to be able to partner HAP (Hatsun Agro Products) on their turnkey project."

Dairy firm Hatsun Agro Product Ltd, one of the country's largest ice cream maker, plans to expand in Maharashtra and may look at acquiring a greenfield project or farm in the state to do so, said a top company executive.

Chennai-based Hatsun, which started off as an ice cream company in the 1970s and later expanded into milk and other dairy products, currently retails a majority of its wares in four states—Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

It began procuring milk from Maharashtra last year but sells milk only in a few pockets of the state. It now plans to expand in the state by selling milk under its Arokya brand more widely, starting with southern Maharashtra.

The firm is also looking at retailing its oldest brand – Arun ice creams–and Hatsun curd in the state.

R.G. Chandramogan, Chairman and Managing Director, Hatsun, said, "We are looking for a greenfield project, a farm, in Maharashtra. If somebody is available for a takeover there, we may look at it. When we buy a company, we prefer buying a company of a smaller size where restructuring can be done according to our requirements so we can modify the procurement system, the distribution model and advertising."

Hatsun Agro currently has 1,200 outlets and is adding another 1,800 outlets in a phased manner over the next 15 months.

Chandramogan said, "This year we’ve already invested about Rs460 crore. Next year our capex will be about Rs 390 crore – so Rs 850 crore in two years was the expansion plan. This has gone into strengthening our marketing network, expanding production capacities and streamlining of our procurement."

Dairy products maker Hatsun Agro Products Ltd, has inaugurated the company's 1,000th Hatsun Daily outlet and has planned to treble the number of its outlets during the next 12 months, to meet the rising demand of its products, a company official said.

The 1,000th outlet, which sells entire range of products by the company, was formally inaugurated by the senior company officials in this city, a company statement said.

"Retail expansion is a key step in meeting the increasing demand for our products and to reach out to new consumers in smaller cities as well.

While we are expanding to new geographies, our Research and Development is completely focused on new product innovations," Hatsun Agro Products Ltd, Marketing and Sales, J Prasanna Venkatesh said.

"Hatsun Daily would continue to grow and become a strong chain of 3,000 outlets in the next 12 months as part of the pan-India expansion programme aiming to reach out to more customers in tier II and III cities," he added.

The company that set up its first outlet in 2014 sells popular milk brand Arokya, curd, paneer, ghee, butter, skimmed milk and dairy whitener.

Recently, it had forayed into frozen food business under the brand 'Oyalo.'

Dairy milk cooperatives seem to be very happy about the demonetisation of the higher Indian currency notes, which led to the boost of banking transactions. Dailry milk cooperatives such as Karnataka Milk Federation, Mother Dairy and Amul are expecting to overcome the problem by transferring the money of the farmers to their bank accounts directly.

According to ET, Rakesh Singh, Cooperative managing director, Karnataka Milk Federation said, "We already disburse 970 crore annually — under the motivational fee to farmers since the past one year and will start making the weekly payments too via bank accounts."

Generally the Dairy companies pay the milk-supplying farmers on weekly basis that too in cash, now they will do the same, once in two-three weeks but in place of cash, they are going to transfer the amount directly to their bank account in order to avoid the hassle.

RG Chandramogan, MD of Hatsun Agro, said, "We have made no cash transfers, except for few old people who are unable to go to bank. Initially, there was resistance from farmers but we wanted to get them away from the clutches of money lenders."