Yakult Danone sees profits by 2011

Yakult Danone India, which has presence in New Delhi and the NCR, plans to sell 100,000 bottles a day by 2008-end. The company may expand its reach to Mumbai and Agra in a few months.

It has set a target of selling 1 lakh bottles a day by the year-end. Of the Rs 136 crore investment by the company, it has already invested Rs 100 crore for building its plant. The remaining amount will be used for distribution and marketing the product.

Yakult Danone, Nestle and the rival companies are expanding their portfolio of functional foods as urban consumers are becoming health-conscious. The packaged dairy products market in India is pegged at Rs 50,000 crore.

However, the probiotic segment forms a negligible portion of this pie, said industry players. The global probiotic industry is estimated to be $14 billion.The companies are also investing in educating consumers about the digestive benefits of probiotic products.

"In the first three months, we found it difficult to generate sales but now most of the Yakult ladies have achieved their initial target of 200 bottles a day," said Shefali Sapra, general manager - corporate communications - Yakult Danone India. Recently, the company introduced the brand in Chandigarh.

"We also market the brand by educating the consumer about probiotic products through Yakult ladies,'' she said.

The Delhi-based company has 80,000 Yakult ladies world-wide and India houses 50. It aims to have at least 150 Yakult ladies by the year-end. Globally, Yakult sells 25 million bottles a day. About 60 per cent of this sales is contributed by the Yakult ladies.

Meanwhile, Groupe Danone also intends to launch its probiotic range through the JV. However, the timeline is not known.

Other probiotc players in India include Amul and Mother Dairy. R S Sodhi, general manager, marketing, Amul, said; "We have received good response for our probiotic range in the metros but we need to work on building greater awareness."

Neerja Hajela, science head, Yakult Danone, said, "The probiotic industry in India faces many challenges such as lack of consumer awareness and poor cold storage facilities. For example, probiotic products need to be stored a particular temperature between 2 and 3 degree Celsius and have limited shelf-life. The industry also needs regulation and guidelines."