French dairy firm Lactalis plans to double its investments to ₹100 crore from the next fiscal onwards, said a top official.
“Since 2019, we have been investing about ₹50 crore to ₹60 crore in enhancing the plant’s capacities and on technology. This year, till now, we have incurred a capex of ₹45 crore. Next fiscal onwards, we will invest ₹100 crore to ₹120 crore,” said Rahul Kumar, CEO, Lactalis India.
A major portion of the funds would be used for setting up a new powder plant, increasing production capacity of Prabhat’s cheese plant and on the procurement side, he said.
Over the last five years, Lactalis has made three acquisitions — Tirumala Milk Products (South), Anik Industries (North) and the BSE-listed Prabhat Dairy Ltd. (West).
“With this, we now have a pan-India presence and are set to grow through the organic and inorganic route. Last year, we registered a revenue of ₹3,500 crore and next fiscal our aim is to touch ₹4,500 crore,” he said.
Announcing the unveiling of ultra high temperature (UHT) processed milk under the global brand Lactel in India, he said the firm’s aim was to capture 5% market share in two years and sell about 30,000-40,000 litres per day.
This would be followed by the introduction of other products such as lassi and yoghurt under the Lactel brand.
He also said that the company was planning to increase its milk procurement from 23 lakh litres per day to 25 lakh litres per day.
