JK Organisation to invest Rs 100-cr in dairy business

Umang Dairies, a part of the Rs 21,000-crore diversified JK Organisation, is likely to invest almost Rs 100 crore to set up green field milk processing units in Uttar Pradesh.

The company has recently invested Rs 20 crore in its Unnao plant to augment its capacity to produce 1,00,000 litres of pasteurised milk a day.

"We are scouting for three or four locations to set up milk processing plants in the state," the company's Vice-President (sales & marketing) Ameet Francis told Business Standard.

The individual investment in setting up of green field units would depend on the capacity of plants.

Meanwhile, Umang on Monday launched its milk brand 'JK Milk.' The company is targetting all major cities of UP, which collectively consume almost 7.5 million litres of milk a day.

In the first phase, Umang has launched 'JK Milk' in Lucknow and plans to scale up its retail network to 2,000 outlets in the next 15 days. Lucknow consumes nearly a million litres of milk a day.

"After we consolidate our position in the state capital, we would gradually target other major towns such as Allahabad and Varanasi," Francis said.

The company has a bigger plant at Gajraula, which has a capacity of a million litres of milk a day. The plant caters to the requirements of other major milk companies, such as Mother Dairy, and institutional clients.

India is amongst the largest milk producers in the world. The country's annual milk production is pegged at 128 million tonnes, of which 66 per cent is consumed in liquid milk form and the rest in value added form, such as curd.