Yakult Danone to set up fermented milk unit in Sonepat

Yakult Danone India Pvt Ltd will invest Rs 136 crore to start a fermented milk project at the food park developed by the Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation (HSIDC) at Rai in Sonepat.

HSIDC Managing Director Rajiv Arora said the project, proposed to be financed entirely through foreign equity by partner companies, would be the first major foreign direct investment on National Highway I in Haryana.

Yakult Danone India is a joint venture of Japan-based Yakult Honsha Company and Danone Probiotics Pvt Ltd, a Singapore-based subsidiary of the Danone Group, France.

Arora said the turnover of the group in 2005 was around Rs 9,600 crore. The installed capacity of the project will be 1.144 million 65-ml bottles of fermented milk drink per day, which will be achieved in four phases.

The company proposed to launch its products by the beginning of next year and would likely to give stiff competition to the existing flavoured milk and Lassi in the Indian market.

Arora said Yakult was founded about 70 years ago in Japan by a pioneering scientist, Minoru Shirota, who had committed himself to the idea of preventive medicines. Shirota developed a beneficial and powerful bacterium which is now known all over the world as lactobacillus casei strain shirota.

He said this bacterium was at the heart of Yakult's business in Japan and 25 other countries. In its international operations, Yakult has focused on its pillar product "Yakult", which is a fermented milk drink containing the Shirota bacterium. The product is now sold all over the world with an estimated consumption of about 25 million bottles every day.