Karnataka Nandini launches its cheese brand in Maharashtra

Karnataka's famous Nandini milk brand is making a foray in Maharashtra's institutional markets involving hotels, restaurants, cafes (HoReCa) and B2B sector. The aim is to grab 20 per cent cheese market share of Maharashtra.

Nandini, the co-operative milk brand of Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) made an entry in this western Indian state a couple of years ago. It currently supplies 2.5 lakh litres of milk in Maharashtra.

The cheese brand was launched on Wednesday in Mumbai at a function in presence of KMF Managing Director BC Sateesh, Board Director Anand Kumar, Director (Marketing) MT Kulkarni among others, according to a press statement.

KMF clocked a turnover of Rs 15,000 crore in FY 2019. It plans to increase its sales to Rs 25,000 crore in five years by scaling up its production of value-added products.

The federation aims to invest Rs 100 crore every year on both greenfield and brownfield expansion within Karnataka and elsewhere. KMF's currently procures 86 lakh litres of milk, which it wants to increase to 106 lakh litres in the next three years.

On every rupee of turnover, KMF pays 80 paise to farmers. This means farmers get 80% of KMF's turnover. The federation has invested Rs 500 crore on its expansion. KMF is looking to acquire an existing dairy plant in Maharashtra to serve its customers in Maharashtra.

"We are thankful to the people of Maharashtra for their trust in us. They value the pure and trusted products and I am sure that Nandini Cheese too will be received well in the institutional sector. Nandini milk and milk products are made of cow milk and gives price advantage and good quality," Sateesh said.

"We expect to capture major chunk of institutional cheese market in Maharashtra, and we are targeting the HoReCa industry and B2B sector while launching the Cheese. The Nandini plant of cheese production has the capacity of production of 40 metric tonnes per day, which can be increased by ten-fold," added Kulkarni.