Heritage Foods enters Punjab

CHANDIGARH: Andhra Pradesh-based dairy products maker Heritage Foods has forayed into Punjab after completing the acquisition of the diary business of Reliance Retail and its brands ‘Dairy Life’ and ‘Dairy Pure’.
Reliance Retail’s dairy business had pan-India presence, with 60% centred around the states of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. The acquisition has given Heritage Foods access to an additional 200,000 litres of milk every day, increasing its handling to 1.4 million litres across 15 states in the country.

“We would like to repeat the same success in north that we have in southern markets for the last 25 years,” Heritage Foods’ executive director Brahmani Nara told ET. “We are not in a hurry to gain market share in newer markets. Procurement of milk locally from farmers and establishing processing centres near our consumers would continue to be our strengths in newer markets.”

An executive of Heritage Foods told ET, “Out of the 2 lakh litres milk per day capacity of Reliance Dairy, as much as 20% comes from Punjab.” In Punjab Heritage intends to grow the brands ‘Dairy Life’ and ‘Dairy Pure’ by investing in building its reach, the executive said.

Heritage Foods, founded in 1992 by Nara Chandrababu Naidu, is one of the fastest growing public listed companies in India. The annual turnover of the company crossed Rs 2,640 crore in 2016-17. The company has already started acquiring milk-processing units in and around Punjab and will be distributing and selling its products through Reliance’s existing retail and wholesale channels in cities including Amritsar, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Patiala and Bathinda. It has a major production unit in Rai, Sonepat, in Haryana.

The company will offer a range of high-quality products in Punjab, including packed milk, flavoured milk, curd, butter, ghee and dairy whitener.