Dabur India Ltd, on Thursday announced its foray into malted food drink (MFD) market with the launch of a new variant of Chawanprash — Chyawan Junior, as part of its aggressive plans into the burgeoning milk beverage market.

“We’re investing heavily in this malted food drink category and will shortly come out with other flavours,” General Manager K K Chutani told reporters here.

“Our plan is to be present in all health products categories in the next couple of years with an all season product positioning,” he added.

Mr Chutani said the Uttaranchal plant, which has been meeting domestic and export demands, has been beefed up to produce the ayurvedic product. After test launch in Maharastra and West Bengal this month, Dabur plans to introduce it nationally next year.

Volume growth

“We expect nearly 20 per cent volume growth in this category in another year or so,” Mr Chutani said.  While milk beverage industry in India is currently valued at Rs 1,500 crore and expected to grow at 15 per cent this year, Chawanprash brand has been valued at Rs 175 crore with Dabur enjoying two-thirds share in the segment.

“We have tried to develop a product that overcomes taste barrier faced by Chyawanprash. It satisfies the requirement of mothers to give nutrition to kids and the kids’ demand to have something tasty,” said Dabur India Executive Vice President K K Rajesh.

The advertising campaign for Dabur Chyawan Junior has been developed with mothers as target audience.

Big B brand envoy

The advertisement with the tag line ‘Apun Ka Style’, represents relevance of Chyawan Junior in a kid’s day-to-day life. It has been endorsed by Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan.

The Rs 2,000 crore Dabur India also has presence in personal care products, healthcare, digestives and fruit based drinks.