Mukesh ups focus on milk segment with 'Dairy Pure'

NEW DELHI:Milk is industrialist Mukesh Ambani's newest business muscle and his corporate dairy is looking for refrigerator space at mom and pop
stores, in addition to vending from Reliance Retail stores.
With the beginning of sale of 'Dairy Pure' through general milk retailers, as opposed to mostly through Reliance Retail-owned stores now, the company expects further growth in this business. The milk business turnover grew nearly 3-fold to over Rs 178 crore last fiscal. Living up to its reputation of entering a market with a competitive edge in terms of pricing, Reliance Retail is trying to lure customers with 10% extra milk in every packet than that of its rivals for the same price.

When contacted, the company spokesperson said that Reliance Retail was expanding and further strengthening its milk retailing business through its private label under 'Dairy Pure' brand.

Besides Reliance stores, the milk brand is also being sold "through general trade (including milk retailers) in Haryana, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, NCR (National Capital Region) and Himachal Pradesh," the spokesperson added. On their part, rivals are welcoming a large corporate in the market saying it would benefit both farmers and customers, but are not perturbed by the competitive pricing as they consider it too small a player as yet to eat into their pie.

Amul, the country's largest milk retailer, believes a sizeable market presence cannot be built overnight in milk business and needs strong procurement and marketing network. "Reliance Retail's milk brand has not got much presence in the market as yet. But it is good for the market to have more players and entry of a large corporate house would be beneficial for farmers as well as customers," Amul's chief general manager R S Sodhi said.