Uttam Dairy in expansion mode, sets up new plant

The Ahmedabad District Co-op Milk Producers' Union, better known as Uttam Dairy, is in an expansion mode. Having exhausted the capacity of its milk and milk product processing plant at Sukhramnagar area of Ahmedabad, Uttam Dairy is setting up a new plant at Navapura, on the outskirts of the city, to meet increasing demand.

Expected to be operational in the next 18 months, the new dairy will also be equipped to manufacture cheese and ice-cream besides the products that are being produced at the existing facility. These include six varieties of milk, ghee and butter milk. Uttam Dairy has so far invested between Rs 7-8 crore in the project.

"We are at present equipped to procure and handle over 1 lakh litres of milk at our Sukhramnagar plant. But with the growing demand, there is a need to increase the capacity and also make provisions for introducing more products including cheese and ice-cream. Uttam Dairy is thus setting up its new plant at Navapura on the Ahmedabad-Bhavnagar Road, which should be operational within 18 months," said Mohanbhai Bharwad, chairman of Ahmedabad District Co-Op Milk Producers' Union (ADCMPUL), in Ahmedabad on Monday.

Prateek Kumar, managing director (in-charge), deputed to Uttam Dairy from the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), said that the civil works for the new project has already been completed.

"With the new plant in place, Uttam Dairy will look to double the procurement of milk from various co-operative societies and producers," he said.

Kumar said that it will be too early to set any production targets for ice-cream and cheese. "The GCMMF is the marketing agency for all dairy products and it markets the products under Amul and Sagar brand names. Milk sold by us in Ahmedabad district is sold under the Uttam brand, while it is sold in other districts as Amul milk," said Kumar.

He added that as and when ice-cream and cheese are manufactured by Uttam Dairy, it will be marketed outside the district under the Amul brand, but Uttam Dairy will be free to use a different brand name if it wants to sell these products within the Ahmedabad district.

In Ahmedabad district, the daily requirement of milk is about 16 lakh litres, of which just about 7.5 lakh litres of milk is distributed through co-operatives.

Of the 7.5 lakh litres sold through co-operatives, Amul sells around 4.5 lakh litres and Uttam Dairy around 1.25 lakh litres. The rest is sold by other co-operatives. For the year ended March 31, 2004, Uttam Dairy clocked total sales of Rs 91.16 crore and had a net profit of Rs 39.17 lakh.