Lactalis India, the Indian arm of French dairy major Lactalis, is eyeing a turnover of ₹4,500 crore in 2021-22.
“We will close the financial year with 2020-21 with ₹3,500 crore. But for the Covid pandemic we would have achieved ₹3,700 crore this year,” Rahul Kumar, Managing Director of Lactalis India, told BusinessLine.
Lactalis India comprises the three companies of Tirumala, Prabhat and Anik that it acquired during the last six years. The firm expected a revenue of ₹1,700 crore from Tirumala, ₹1,400 crore from Prabhat Dairy and ₹600 crore from Anik for financial year 2020-21.
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The firm, with a combined collection capacity of 20 lakh litres a day, is planning to take collection levels up by 7 lakh litres a day in order to accrue ₹1,000 crore more revenues in the next financial year.
On Monday, the French firm introduced Lactel UHT (Ultra-High Temperature or ultra pasteurised) toned milk, eyeing a pie in the high-value milk category.
UHT milk, with a market size of 8 lakh litres a day in the country, is currently sold at ₹64-74 a litre. Lactalis has priced the product at ₹70 a litre.
“We would like to have a market share of 5 per cent (30-40,000 litres a day) in the next two years in this segment,” Rahul Kumar said.
Investments
Lactalis is investing ₹100-120 crore every year in expanding the production capacities and processing capacities in the country.
Of the $80-billion dairy market in the country, milk worth $40 billion comes to the market with the rest being consumed locally. About 30 per cent of $40 billion is the size of the value-added products.
Ensuring quality
Rahul said the company brought in adequate checks and balances to guard against contamination of milk with antibiotics. “Generally, 2-3 per cent of all milk may be contaminated with antibiotics. But we ensure all of the milk that we procure is segregated. We can trace the produce that we procure. This helps us avoid contamination,” he said.