DS Group acquires dairy plant in Rajasthan

Jaipur, May 2 (IANS) Dharampal Satyapal Group (DS Group), a Rs.2,200 crore multi-diversified conglomerate Wednesday announced its strategic foray into the dairy business, with the acquisition of an existing dairy plant at Reengus in Rajasthan.

Financial details of the takeover were, however, not disclosed.

DS Milk Product Ltd. (DSMPL), a part of the DS Group will sell its products to institutional customers and bulk market, under the brand name 'Dairymax' in the first phase.

Located at an approximate distance of 60 km from state capital Jaipur at Shree Khatu Shyamji Industrial Complex, the dairy plant is spread over 7.5 acres and has a capacity to process approximately 4 lakh litres of milk per day.

Anshu Dewan, Director, DSMPL, addressing a press conference here, said: "The DS Group is focusing on expanding its offerings in the food business, and dairy farms are an integral part of the scheme of activities. The company expects to add further milk- handling capacity through acquisition and setting up of Greenfield projects."

Vishnu Sharma, Senior Vice President (Projects), DSL, said it was a strategic decision to acquire the plant in Rajasthan as the quality of milk available in this region is of superior quality.

"We have ambitious plans to cover a whole gamut of dairy products in the future and aim to touch a revenue of Rs.300 crore in three years. We are also envisaging to set up a Greenfield dairy project in the Northeast and the plans are currently being finalized," said Sharma.

Moving forward, the company will have a mix of institutional, bulk and retail customers. For the retail roll-out, the company will initially use the existing distribution network of the Food Division, covering over 1 lakh retail outlets all over the country, followed by developing the network for fresh milk products.

The retail launch of Ghee will start in May, from Rajasthan, and will gradually spread all over India by the end of financial year 2012-13. The milk is currently being procured from contractual milk suppliers.

The company intends to create its own VLCs and chilling centres gradually, thus procuring directly from farmers.