Keventer Agro aims at 25% market share Tetra Pak milk in east India

Aiming at a 25 per cent market share in eastern India in the Rs 10-billion Ultra High Temperature (UHT) packaged milk space by 2020, Keventor Agro has invested Rs 1.5 billion to put up the region’s largest Ultra High Temperature (UHT) milk plant.

Currently, the dairy segment – comprising liquid pouch milk and ice-cream – churns out around Rs 4 billion in revenues for the company and it has targeted to double this turnover to Rs 8 billion in the coming two years. Keventer sells fresh milk and ice-cream under the Metro brand. 

UHT milk refers to a sterilisation technology where the milk is heated above 135 degree Celsius for 3-4 seconds to kill bacteria while maintaining nutritional levels. UHT milk is usually packaged as Tetra Paks.

"We are aiming at 250 crore revenue and 25 per cent market share in the UHT milk segment with Keventor brand UHT milk by 2020. The initial trials had been a tremendous success," Keventer Agro’s managing director, Mayank Jalan said.

"Currently, we are sourcing milk from around 20,000 dairy farmers who produce about 40,000-50,000 litres of UHT milk a day. We expect to be able to ramp up to full capacity of two lakh litres (200,000 litres) a day of the plant by end 2019 or early 2020," he added.

The company would restrict itself to eastern markets such as Odhisa, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Bihar and in the north-eastern states.

The UHT market in the country is pegged at around 1.5 million litres a day in volume terms, of which 30 per cent is consumed in eastern India. The region's market has grown at a rate of 23 per cent in the last 3-4 years.