Parag Milk to focus on health-based products

Shoba Roy | Kolkata 

Parag Milk Foods, makers of brands such as Go cheese and Gowardhan ghee, is looking to strengthen its health and nutrition business.

The company, which forayed into production of whey protein under the Avvatar brand in 2017, is looking to launch several other products in the health and fitness segment.

According to Devendra Shah, Chairman of Parag Milk Foods, health and nutrition as a category is likely to contribute to 7 per cent of its total business in the next two years.

“The sport nutrition market in India is estimated to be around ₹1,400-1,600 crore and is growing at over 25 per cent on a year-on-year basis. We expect this to support the growth in our health and nutrition business,” Shah told BusinessLine. While the market for traditional dairy products — milk, ghee, paneer and curd — has been growing at around 15 per cent, that for modern products such as UHT milk, flavoured milk, cheese and whey powder has been growing at over 25 per cent.

Parag is looking to launch whey protein powder for mass consumption in different formats. It is also exploring the possibility for rolling out colostrum products as daily supplements.

Growth in turnover

Parag, which has been growing at over 20 per cent on a year-on-year basis, aims to achieve a turnover of ₹2,700-3,000 crore by 2020.

As on March 2018, its revenue was ₹1,955 crore.

Nearly 80 per cent of its revenues come from value-added products.

The remaining 20 per cent comes from the liquid-milk business.

The company recently (in 2018) acquired Danone Foods and Beverages India’s dairy factory at Sonipat in Haryana.

It has installed new processing units for pouch milk, curd and paneer milk to be sold under the Gowardhan brand.

Plans are afoot to expand the manufacturing facility by adding variants such as flavored milk, pouch butter milk, mishti dahi and yogurt.

“The Sonipat plant has helped us strengthen our distribution channel in the North, and we are planning to expand the network in other regions as well,” he said.

Parag’s manufacturing unit at Manchar in Maharashtra produces 60 metric tonne of cheese per day, with more than 60 variants on offer.

The company claims to hold a 35 per cent market share in cheese in India.

“We are planning to launch more variants under the flavoured cheese category. R&D is under way and we are hopeful of firming up something soon,” he said.