Thirumala Milk setting up Rs 100-cr processing plant

Hyderabad-based Thirumala Milk Products Private Limited (TMPL), in which private equity major Carlyle has invested Rs 100 crore for a 20 per cent stake, is setting up a 400,000-litre  per day capacity milk processing and packaging  plant at Melmaruvathur, about 90 km from Chennai.

“The construction work is in progress and the plant will be commissioned in a span of six months,”  TMPL managing director, B Brahma Naidu, told mediapersons here on Monday. Naidu said the processing plant had been entirely funded through internal accruals. In 2012-13, he said, TMPL would post a turnover of about Rs 1,500 crore and a net profit of around Rs 110 crore. The company’s turnover in 2011-12 stood at Rs 1,173 crore.

It is also planning to start its operations in Delhi shortly. “We are conducting a survey besides looking for milk plants in the national capital region for acquiring or taking on lease a milk processing and packaging plant,”he said, adding the company had earmarked Rs 50 crore for Delhi operations.

TMPL has its operations spread over Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. It also markets long shelf-life products like UHT (ultra-high temperature processing) milk in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh.