A new milk brand flags off from Sambhal

Liquid milk is a tough business to be in given the challenges in procurement, processing and distribution of this perishable commodity. Where heavyweights fear to tread, Anant Choudhary, CEO of Transpole group, a logistics company, is jumping in with a premium milk brand – Freshmen’s Valley – which he aims to take national.

On Tuesday, Freshmen’s Valley kicked off operations from its spanking new milk processing plant in Anandpur block of Sambhal district, Uttar Pradesh near Moradabad. To start with, the pouch-packed milk in five variants – standard, toned, doubled toned, full cream and skimmed – will be distributed in Uttarakhand and western UP (from Moradabad to Ghaziabad). Thereafter, the brand taglined “your backyard dairy” and priced slightly higher than mass brands like Amul plans to expand into Noida and Delhi before eventually going national.

In a country where fresh milk has been the preserve of cooperatives with very Indian names, will the brand name Freshmen’s Valley resonate? Choudhary says it was deliberately chosen to give an international flavour as were the look and feel of the creatives made by Lowe Lintas.

Value-added products

Apart from fresh milk, Freshmen’s Valley which has started with a modest investment of Rs 50 crore, will also be introducing value-added products such as paneer, ghee, yoghurt, buttermilk, and flavoured milk.

“Logistics is the core of the milk business. That’s why we have ventured into it with confidence,” says Choudhary. He feels dairy despite being crowded has enough headroom for growth as there is a gap in quality as well as packaging. “Research showed us that milk is one of the most adulterated products in India and if we could guarantee quality we could make an impact,” he says. Freshmen’s Valley will also be investing in ESL (extended shelf life) packaging which is disrupting the milk category and helping new brands to muscle in.

How would he check adulteration? Choudhary says he is allocating a lot of his capex into testing equipment and facilities to check milk at the procurement stage. Also the milk trucks are equipped with GPS and camera sensors that send alerts of abnormal activities.

Choudhary who grew up in a farm near Gaya, chose Sambhal as his base as it is a milk rich belt and not too far from NCR. A four hour drive from Delhi, Sambhal has 7 lakh cattle that produce an average of 12 lakh litres of milk per day. Although there’s a lot of competition when it comes to procurement with dairies like Gopaljee Ananda, Madhusudhan, Umang etc sourcing from here, till now there has been no corporate investment in terms of plants here.

UP scheme

Freshmen’s Valley is tapping 50,000 farmers in the region and hopes to wean them away from rivals by offering competitive rates (Rs 72 to Rs 85 per litre are procurement rates depending on fat content) and investing in CSR activities. Three chilling centres have been set up that will cover 10 villages each.

The UP government recently launched a slew of schemes – including the Kamdhenu scheme for small farmers - to incentivise the dairy sector, which Choudhary feels will benefit his start up. At 23 million tonnes, UP is the largest producer of milk in the country accounting for 17 per cent of the country’s production.

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