Sudha puts Bangladesh plans on backburner

Sudha Dairy, the brand owned by Bihar Co-Operative Milk Federation (COMFED), has put its plans to enter into Bangladesh on backburner. The constant delay in commissioning of its mega processing plant at Nalanda and shift in focus towards Delhi milk market have been cited as the major reasons for this decision.

Around two years ago, COMFED decided to foray in Bangladesh through tetra packs.. It had planned to commission a tetra packing plant in the proposed mega milk processing plant at Biharsharif, Nalanda, especially for this purpose. The plant was expected to be ready by March, 2012, but it is still in the construction phase. The continuous delays forced the co-operative federation to put the project on backburner.

"There have been delays in the commissioning of the processing plant," COMFED Managing Director Harjot Kaur told Business Standard, "which compelled us to change our strategy. However, it is not the only reason. There are also other factors due to which we deviated from our pre-decided path."

Venturing into Delhi milk market is one of such factors. Kaur commented, "Delhi-NCR is the biggest milk market in the country. It is growing very rapidly and it has still place for everyone. We want to consolidate our position as soon as possible. Therefore, we decided to put more focus on Delhi-NCR, where we are the newest entrant." Sudha Dairy is eyeing third slot in Delhi-NCR.

She added, "The NCR packaged milk market has a demand of 70 LLPD, which despite their best of efforts, Amul and Mother Dairy, failed to meet. So, there is ample room for us in this market. We are increasing our supply to Delhi to consolidate our position.

Very soon we will be supplying 1 lakh litres per day (LLPD) milk in this market. By the end of this year, we have decided to step up this volume to 3 LLPD."

She told, "It is not like that we have given up the project (to enter Bangladesh) altogether. We would like to go there, but I cannot give any timeline for this. After Bihar, today our first priority is Delhi-NCR. It is a very lucrative market and we really want to succeed there.