According to a press release issued by the company, the dairy has automated production facilities with advanced equipment at Shrirampur (Ahmednagar) and at Navi Mumbai, with an aggregate milk processing capacity of 1.5 million litre per day as on March 15, 2015.
Vivek Nirmal, joint managing director, Prabhat Dairy, said, “Our facilities are in close proximity to our milk procurement region as well as target market and we have in-built capacities to expand retail consumer product offerings and introduce high growth products such as mozzarella cheese, cheddar cheese, processed cheese, paneer (cottage cheese) and shrikhand. Cheese is the fastest growing segment in the domestic dairy and milk products industry. The cheese market grew by around 20% CAGR, to reach Rs 50-55 billion in fiscal 2014, from Rs 26 billion in fiscal 2010. Growth was mainly driven by the urban population, which accounted for about 80%-90% of the total cheese consumption in India.”
He added, “As part of our growth strategy, we intend to continue to invest in increasing our manufacturing capacities for our existing dairy products and also develop manufacturing capabilities for new products, particularly high margin products with significant growth opportunities in India.”
According to a CRISIL report, the processed milk segment recorded 14%-15% CAGR, reaching Rs 2,160-2,170 billion in fiscal 2014, from about Rs 1,250 billion in fiscal 2010. Milk prices are expected to rise by 7%-8% CAGR over the next three years, primarily driven by an increase in fodder prices, which in turn, are expected to be driven by a similar rise in minimum support prices of key crops. Thus, overall, the segment will grow by 12%-13% CAGR, in value terms, from fiscal 2014 to fiscal 2017 to reach Rs 3,090-3,100 billion.
The company sells retail consumer products under Prabhat, Flava and Milk Magic brands. The products include pasteurised milk, UHT milk, dairy whitener, milk powder, lassi, curd (dahi), chaas and clarified butter (ghee), flavoured milk, and sweetened condensed milk.
It has a large distribution network with more than 350 distributors. In addition, retail consumer products are distributed in the Mumbai metropolitan area and nearby cities and towns to a large number of retail outlets through more than 100 mini stockists.
As of February 28, 2015, the company’s milk collection facilities included more than 450 milk collection centres, over 15 milk chilling plants and over 80 bulk milk coolers. The milk collection facilities have automatic milk testing equipment and specialised storage facilities, to test, collect and store raw milk at these milk collection facilities before being transported to the production facilities.
