The Hindu Business Line : Mother Dairy rides on peas to boost ice-cream market

Taking advantage of the strong distribution chain used for its Safal brand of peas, Mother Dairy believes logistics and cold chain facilities will hold its brand in good stead in the markets it enters.

Mother Dairy, which launched its ice cream brand last summer in Mumbai, has been slowly increasing its offerings in the regional markets, after establishing its prominence in the northern States.

Mr Paul Thachil, Chief Executive Officer, Mother Dairy India, told Business Line: "The cold chain for distribution is common for our ice cream and frozen peas. We have aligned our products for distribution in a similar way."

In Mumbai, Mother Dairy has 5,500 stockists for its peas brand - its ice creams are available in 1,500 outlets. However, Amul Ice Creams continues to rule in the Mumbai market at a 32 per cent share followed by Kwality Walls with a share of 18 per cent.

With a 10 per cent share in the northern market for its ice creams, Mother Dairy is yet to tap the southern markets. Apart from the North and the West, the company last year entered the eastern market with products such as butter, ice creams and its UHT milk, again riding on the distribution of its frozen peas.

Mother Dairy has been launching a series of products in the western region including fresh milk, ghee, butter and cheese, which was introduced recently. However, it has no plans to set up independent retail outlets (such as the ones in Delhi), primarily due to real estate constraints in a city such as Mumbai. "Mumbai is too crowded and the demand for liquid milk is not there," said Mr Thachil.

Creating brand awareness in the new markets is more challenging for the dairy brand than the distribution hurdles. "Distribution is not an issue as much as building the brand in the new markets," said Mr Thachil.

Mother Dairy's creative agency Saatchi & Saatchi is already in the process of beefing up brand building initiatives, and the company has decided to increase its ad spend. "We should be hiking our ad budgets by 20-25 per cent," said Mr Thachil.

The Rs 2,000-crore dairy company projects a growth rate of 10-12 per cent this fiscal.

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