On the health curve

Packaged milk brands launch buttermilk and yoghurt drinks

It's not a market driven by volumes yet, but B M Vyas, managing director of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, expects its new summer cooler in the milk products category to be a hit among consumers.

For the last two months, 80 per cent of the co-operative's two 200,000 packets a day units at Gandhi Nagar have been churning out Masti Spiced Buttermilk, the latest milk-based beverage from the Rs 3,000 crore Amul dairy products' stable.

"Masti Spiced Buttermilk is being positioned as a health drink and 5 million packs of the buttermilk will reach the market in a month. The product is already available in places like Vaishno Devi and Silchar," says Vyas.

Amul is not the only brand eyeing the milk based beverages market. Ram Gopal, general manager (marketing) at the AP Dairy Development Cooperative, says that Vijaya entered the flavoured milk category in 2003 and is looking at launching lassi and buttermilk next month.

Bangalore-based Sun Valley that launched Mastikool two years ago, has since expanded its product range to include two fruit-flavoured yoghurt drinks under the same brandname.

Balan Natural Foods, also in Bangalore, launched its yoghurt-based drink Miruna Yo, last July. After test marketing it in six cities including Mysore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Ernakulam, Miruna Yo was launched in 50 cities this year.

Companies in the north are not inactive either. Ghaziabad-based Amrit Banaspati, which markets Gagan's flavoured milk in Delhi and eastern UP, is drawing up plans to launch a yoghurt-based fruit drink.

While Mother Dairy India Ltd will launch a flavoured yoghurt by the end of the year, the Rs 500-crore Paras group test marketed its yogurt drink in the Delhi market last year and is currently thrashing out details concerning packaging options.

Industry estimates on the total size of the milk products segment such as buttermilk, flavoured milk and yoghurt drinks, vary wildly between Rs 15 crore and Rs 30 crore "" a drop in the ocean of the total packaged milk market pegged at Rs 36,000 crore.

But V Balasubramanian, CEO of Balan Natural Foods, thinks the potential of packaged milk-based beverages is expanding: "We started out with 10,000 cases a month of yoghurt drinks last year, this year we have touched 50,000 cases a month," he says.

Even Vyas thinks that with health being the buzzword and Tetrapak packaging offering longer shelf-life of upto four to six months, buttermilk will be a consumer puller.

"The product is positioned as a preservative-free, health drink. My hunch is that people want to go for natural products today," he adds.

Sundeep Bhandari, chief executive of Sun Valley, says that the company has been selling Mastikool in Bangalore, Chennai and Cochin and Pune in the west.

"But with growing demand, we have increased production by 50 per cent to cater to new markets such as Mumbai and Delhi," he says. Mastikool will hit the Delhi market next month.

Apart from milk, Balan Natural Foods and Sun Valley are eyeing the vegetable and fruit juices market which is currently said to be growing by 29 per cent every year.

For the companies it's a natural extension as Balan manufactures fruit juices for the Dabur group and energy drinks for CFL Pharmaceuticals while Sun Valley exports mango pulp from its 2,000 tonnes a year unit near Pune.

Churning new ideas

• Amul launches Masti Spiced Buttermilk at an introductory price of Rs 5
• Balan Foods' yoghurt drink to hit 50 cities this year
• Amrit Banaspati gears up to launch yoghurt drink in Delhi, Haryana and UP
• Total size of the milk-based beverage market is under Rs 30 crore