To expand its market in the northern region, Parag Milk Foods is foraying into Uttar Pradesh with 'Gowardhan Ghee' and Go products and is eyeing Rs 500 crore business from the state by 2017.
"We are looking to consolidate our presence across all major markets and are hence, keen to further enhance our brand connect with Uttar Pradesh. The market entry of Gowardhan ghee in UP will help us strengthen our market reach and in increasing our brand portfolio across the dairy products," Parag Milk Foods Chairman Devandra Shah said in a release.
"With close to 16 per cent of India's population, UP becomes a very important state in business plans of any organisation," he added.
The company has a UP specific business plan for the next two years in place, coined as 'Mission 500', under which they are targeting to make Gowardhan ghee 500 tonnes a month brand and Go products (cheese, yogurt, UHT milk) 500 tonnes per month and Rs 500 crore business by 2017.
The company, he said, will drive this with focused distribution expansion and plans are in place to cover all 700 urban towns by the end of 2015, up from today's direct reach of top 150 towns.
"Also, we will have indirect distribution through wholesale feeder markets with focus on affordable small packs across portfolio. With this, our endeavour is to give the UP consumers a chance to try a wide range of quality cow milk products," he added.
The distribution task chalked out is to make the company's products available in 20,000 outlets in 700 urban markets and ensure wide consumer reach, he said.
"While we have had strong double digit growth in the past, our future plans are exciting enough to accelerate growth rates to 50 per cent, over the next few years. This will happen with venturing into newer categories and adding new brands in our portfolio," Shah said.
The company also has lined up new products and brand launches over the next 12-18 months, he added.
