Karnataka Milk Federation set to expand in TN, AP

Plans to set up parlours in Chennai and Hyderabad

The Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), the umbrella body of milk co-operatives in the state with 13 district-level milk unions under it, is set to expand its operations outside Karnataka. The federation is planning to set up parlours in Chennai and Hyderabad to sell products with longer shelf life.

KMF, with more than 70 products under its umbrella brand 'Nandini', controls about 75 per cent of the market in Karnataka. "Sometime this month, the co-operative will enter Hyderabad," C P Reddy, deputy director (marketing), KMF, said. It is also planning to launch its products in Tamil Nadu.

KMF's portfolio consists of 60 sweets and seven milk brands including ultra-high temperature milk brand 'Goodlife'. At the same time, it is planning to set up depots for its products with long shelf life, across 11-12 states, where it already sells through retailers.

Of the more than 6.3 million litres of milk that the KMF procures every day in Karnataka, about 3 million are sold as liquid milk and the rest are converted into value-added products, Reddy said.

KMF is the largest milk co-operative in south India today with more than Rs 10,000 crore per annum in revenues, about half the revenues of Amul, the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd's brand.

Currently, KMF exports its milk products, including those with long shelf-life, to nine countries.

After the competition from private players that snatched a good chunk of the market from KMF in the state a few years ago, both big and small, from within and outside the state, the co-operative is now having to fend off competition from co-operatives like the one from Mother Dairy of Delhi.

Interestingly, some of the products such as ice-cream of Mother Dairy are made at a KMF facility in north Bengaluru.