Start-up Milk Mantra chalks out expansion, open to acquisitions

Odisha-based dairy start-up Milk Mantra is hoping to turn profitable this fiscal.

On the look out for acquisitions, the company is now sewing up expansion plans in eastern States namely West Bengal, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

Milk Mantra is into milk and value added offerings with a portfolio that include milk, curd, paneer, chanch (butter milk), milk-shake, under the ‘Milky Moo’ brand name.

According to Srikumar Misra, Founder, MD and CEO, Milk Mantra, the company will look to break even, at an operating level, this fiscal with a turnover of over ₹200 crore. It closed FY-17 with a turnover of about ₹150 crore.

“FY-18 is our targeted break even year with a topline of more than ₹200 crore. We will look to clock around ₹16-17 crore of sales on a monthly basis,” he told BusinessLine .

Achieving a target of ₹200 crore does not look improbable for the company whose topline was just ₹18 crore in FY-13 (the first full year of operations).

The start-up has secured four rounds of funding and is backed by PE players like Neev Fund, Eight Roads Ventures and Aavishkaar Venture Management Services.

For Milk Mantra, the plan is to expand beyond its home-State into the neighbouring ones. A conscious focus is on the eastern States. Of the existing 7,000 stores, where its offerings are sold, nearly 6,500 are in Odisha. The remaining are in Kolkata, Ranchi, and Raipur.

“By FY-18 we should be present across 10,000 stores including upping our presence in B-C-J (Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand) markets. We’ll initially target Kolkata, Bokaro, Jamshedpur, Ranchi, Raipur and Bhilai,” Misra said.

Interestingly, the company is open to acquisitions (of processing units), if required, in order to bolster presence in new markets. Milk Mantra has two processing units in Odisha – near Konark and Sambalpur – with a combined capacity of 300,000 litres per day.

“We are open to both inorganic and greenfield development in the region,” he said, adding that if required, additional funding can be explored.

Misra knows that he has to innovate and there is a strong focus on product innovation. Accordingly making further investments at its R&D facility at Bhubaneswar is being looked at.

Incidentally, Milk Mantra has introduced an innovative packaging that increases the shelf life of milk, plans to relaunch its milkshake with curcumin (an extract from turmeric that has several health benefits) targeting the functional beverage category. Probiotic and mango-flavoured curds, litchi-flavoured milkshake are also being launched.

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