Looking to expand its fruit and vegetable business, leading milk supplier Mother Dairy today said it will open 55 new Safal outlets in the National Capital Region and Bangalore, taking the tally to nearly 500.
Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable, established in 1974, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). The company's business is divided into four segments - milk, dairy items, Dhara edible oils and horticulture through Safal brand and outlets. The product portfolio under Safal brand includes fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen vegetables, juices and processed food items such as jam, pickle and tomato ketchup.
"We presently have 400 Safal outlets in Delhi-NCR and 30 stores in Bangalore. We will be adding 40 stores in NCR and 15 in Bangalore this fiscal," Mother Dairy Fruit and Vegetable Business Head (Horticulture) Pradipta K Sahoo said. He noted that sales volume in the existing Safal outlets could not be increased beyond a point. "For further growth of Safal business, we have to add new stores." Asked about investment, he said it costs only about Rs 10 lakh on an average to set up an outlet as the company takes land on lease.
Sahoo noted that the horticulture division posted a turnover of Rs 532 crore during last fiscal and it is growing by about 12 per cent year-on-year. In volume terms, he said the company handled about 250,000 tonnes last fiscal, including 120,000 tonnes of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Mother Dairy procures fruits and vegetables from 15 states through 110 associations, which together have 10,000 farmers as members. It has a state-of-the-art facility in West Delhi from where all the products are distributed.
Safal outlets are being operated on the franchisee model, where the company provides the basic infrastructure. Sahoo also highlighted that the company is focusing a lot on mangoes. The company has been running the campaign on safe mangoes from last three years and it uses totally chemical-free ripening process to ripen fruits. "We are the second biggest producer of mango pulp in the country, which is also exported," he added.
