Creamline Dairy to invest ₹400 cr in three plants

Creamline Dairy Products Ltd,a subsidiary of Godrej Agrovet, has firmed up plans to invest ₹400 crore to set up three new plants over the next three years.

The Hyderabad-headquartered company, a ₹1,200-crore dairy player, will set up the plants in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, together adding around 2 lakh litres per day (llpd) capacity. At present it has nine operating plants in the five southern States, said K Bhasker Reddy, Founder &Managing Director.

Recently, CDPL acquired a milk processing plant in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu. A greenfield plant in Visakhapatnam with an investment of ₹35 crore and capacity of one llpd will be fully operational by end of 2018. With this, the company will reach about 12 llpd processing capacity, he told Business Line.

The funding for the expansion will be through a combination of internal accruals and loans from financial institutions, said Reddy. The over 30-year-old company twice divested 26 per cent stake each time in 2006 and 2015 to Godrej Agrovet which now holds a majority 52 per cent stake and is also willing to help in the expansion. CDPL with over 100 collection centres also operates its own dairy parlours across major cities. Its brand `Jersey’ is among the market leaders in milk, curd, buttermilk, flavoured milk, paneer, ice creams and ghee. By launching the Jersey Thickshake on Wednesday, it has become one of the first private dairy companies to launch milkshakes.

The company is focussing on increasing its share in the value added products going forward. It will soon launch buttermilk and lassi made at its Keshavaram plant on the outskirts of Hyderabad, Reddy said.

After launching branded milkshake, the company has more value added products in the pipeline