Sudha Dairy plans to foray into international markets

The Bihar State Milk Co-Operative Federation (COMFED), which markets its products under the brand name Sudha, is now planning its foray into the international market. The cooperative major has drawn up plans to enter Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal's markets in next couple of years.

"Sudha is already a brand in the country, now we want to take it to international markets," said a senior COMFED official, "International markets have become lucrative now. Therefore, we are toying with ideas about foraying into the Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal's markets. We are taking into considerations."

The COMFED plans to enter these markets through Tetra Pak products. Tetra Pak is a special packaging system, which increases the shelf life of milk and other dairy products by months.The COMFED has recently set up a Tetra Pak plant in Nalanda district, with an aim to strengthen its presence in distant markets.
 

"We are also planning a further expansion of this plant in next couple of years, which would enable us to enter into these markets. This would help us foray into these markets whenever we want to."The COMFED is also aggressively focusing on taking "Sudha" to domestic market. COMFED currently supplies milk to more than half a dozen states including Delhi-NCR, West Bengal and north eastern states.

It has set its eyes on other states in next couple of years to expand its reach and increase its sales. For this, it's planning to set up milk processing around Delhi-NCR, Kolkata and other metro cities. To increase its market, the COMFED has also planned hefty capital expansion worth Rs 700 crore by 2017. COMFED's Managing Director Aadesh Titarmare told, "Today Sudha has become a symbol for Bihar. Our daily collection has gone up to 20 lakh liters per day and now we are aiming for 44 lakh liters in next couple of years. With this, we also plan to expand our marketing network to double our sales, which currently stands at 11 lakh liters per day. It requires huge capital investment and therefore we plan to invest around Rs 700 crore to increase our processing and marketing capacities. "