Heritage Foods expands into East India with dairy, value-added products

INDIA – Heritage Foods, India’s second-largest private dairy company, is expanding its operations into West Bengal, Bihar, and Jharkhand, marking a significant move into Eastern India’s rapidly growing dairy market.

The company is launching four long-shelf life milk variants and a range of value-added products, including milkshakes, lassi, flavored milk, cold coffee, ghee, and laddus.

CEO Srideep N Kesavan announced the simultaneous launch in the three states, highlighting the region’s growth potential due to changing consumer attitudes, urbanization, and rising disposable incomes. Heritage Foods now operates in 14 states across India.

He added that Heritage Foods aims to increase its value-added product revenue by 3% annually, targeting a 45% contribution within three years.

In West Bengal, the company plans to reach 20,000 retail outlets within six to twelve months and aim for statewide availability by Durga Puja.

This strategy is part of their effort to maximize consumer outreach and establish a strong market presence. In the second phase of operations, Heritage Foods intends to introduce fresh milk in Bengal, which is contingent on generating sufficient demand and brand momentum.

“That will probably be in the second phase of our operations. Fresh milk requires capital investment. So, we are at this stage trying to generate demand and momentum for the brand in the market,” he noted.

“Once we have a sufficient consumer base and the demand gets created, we will be moving into phase II of our operations, where we will be looking at the investment to integrate the raw milk procurement.”

The CEO emphasized that East India is one of the fastest-growing dairy markets in the country, driven by low per capita consumption of dairy products and increasing consumer interest in nutrition.

This, coupled with rapid urbanization and growing disposable incomes, makes the region an attractive market for Heritage Foods.

Heritage Foods is also focused on expanding its footprint in the East to grow revenue from value-added products such as lassi, ghee, and laddus.

The company aims to boost the value-added product contribution to its revenue by about 3% each year, targeting a 45% contribution within the next three years. In the last financial year, the value-added product contribution increased by around 1.30%.

“Our objective is to grow our value-added product contribution to the company’s revenue by about 3 percent yearly. That is one of the reasons we are expanding into the East. We believe this region is a big market for value-added products,” the Chief Executive Officer said.

In West Bengal, the company aims to make its products available across the state before Durga Puja, a major festival, to maximize consumer outreach.

Kesavan noted that introducing fresh milk in Bengal would likely occur in the second phase of operations once there is sufficient consumer demand and brand momentum. This would involve capital investment to integrate raw milk procurement.

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