01-01-2013, 09:41 AM
INDUSTRIAL VISIT TO MOTHER DAIRY PLANT AT DANKUNI, KOLKATA
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INTRODUCTION
It was set up in 1978 under ‘Operation Flood-I’ scheme of Govt. of India. Today Mother Dairy Kolkata is a household name and the Dairy is a premier dairy player in the state of West Bengal that has completed 33 years of dedicated service by serving innumerable small and marginal village milk producers and a wide cross-section of urban consumers.
It safeguard the interest of rural milk producers by encouraging cooperative movement and marketing surplus milk available from villages thus helping milk producers to realize their own potential through organized endeavor and creation of more rural wealth. It is set up on 27 acres of land at village Kuasaigachi on Kolkata-Delhi national highway no.6 in a eco-friendly ambience.
The project is a practical example of famous ‘Anand Pattern’ Co-operative movement as a part of ‘Operation Flood’ as propounded by Dr. Verghese Kurien, the erstwhile Chairman of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) better known as the ‘Milkman of India’. The initial capacity of the dairy was 4 lakh liters liquid milk per day (llpd) which has been enhanced to 6 lakh liters liquid milk per day.
Management of Dairy was initially entrusted with National Dairy Development Board to design, install and operate the plant on behalf of the state govt. With effect from Nov’1996. Govt. of West Bengal Cooperative Milk Producers Federation Ltd- the apex state level milk co-operative body.
Clarification:
The chilled milk from the soils goes to the clarifier after pre-heating. The clarifier spins the milk at very high speed, removing all dust particles that are invisible to the naked eye.
Standardization:
Milk from different breeds of cows and buffaloes varies in its composition. Hence, to make milk uniform in composition, it is standardized by raise or lowering its fat and SNF percentage to a desired level, so as to deliver the milk to consumers as per prescribed PFA norms.
Homogenization:
In this process, the milk is subjected to a very high pressure due to which the large fat globules present in milk are broken down into tiny droplets. The milk fat gets evenly distributed and milk appears whiter and thicker. Milk is homogenized for consumers who do not like creamy layer on top. Homogenization improves palatability of milk.
Pasteurization:
In this process, the milk is heated at 72oC for 15 seconds and then is rapidly cooled down to 4oC. This process kills all the pathogenic bacteria present in the milk making milk safe for consumption. Pasteurization unlike boiling does not affect the nutritive value of the milk
Pasteurization, named after French Scientist Louis Pasteur who invented the process was first applied to milk by Dr. Soxhlet of Germany.
Product and Process:
Mother Dairy procures wholesome fresh milk from different co-operative milk unions within and outside the state. It uses modern processing technique of recombination and reconstitution by which liquid milk of acceptable standard and nutrition is produced using fresh milk and milk commodities like skimmed milk powder (SMP), butter, butter oil etc.
Mother Dairy produces pasteurized and homogenized liquid milk. Processed milk is fortified with ‘Vitamin-A’ to enhance nutritive value as well as prevention of night blindness. Mother Dairy started with marketing 2500 liters of liquid milk per day in 1978 and at present average sale figure of liquid milk is around 3.5 lakh liters per day.
A no. of tie-ups have been made to enhance production and new satellite dairies have come up at Ausgram near Guskara, Burdwan and Barasat. Mother Dairy has also tie-up with State Govt. dairy Milton plant (Dairpoul) at Howrah and at Krishnagar dairy.
Mother Dairy also produces and markets other products like Misti Doi, Flavored Yoghurt and Plain Yoghurt and Paneer. It also markets Packaged Drinking water and Ice-cream. Some other products like cow ghee, Ben’s brand Butter, Lassi, Kalakand etc. which are produced at satellite dairies are available at dairy outlets.
Marketing Strategies Implemented
1. Focused Approach: Mother Dairy wants to get into bigger markets and have bigger shares in those markets. The cooperative is also expanding its product portfolio further to match rival offerings – particularly those of Amul. For the first 22 years of its existence, liquid milk was the only dairy product that Mother Dairy offered. It was in 1996 that it came up with ice-creams. But the real spurt came about four years ago, when it introduced curd, flavored milk, lassi and mishti doi. It also introduced butter, ghee, UTH milk and cheese. So while the product portfolio has been growing, Mother Dairy has plans for reach out to newer markets - but the strategy here is more product-specific. Their objective of getting into newer locations is not to make Mother Dairy larger, but to ensure that there is a large viable distribution network and consumer brand to take care of surplus milk.
2. Wider Spread: However, as far as other dairy products are concerned, Mother Dairy plans to expand across the board. Other than milk, for most state federations, dairy products are still a small part of their operations. So they are taking their products to regions across India, where they see enough market potential. In ice creams, it was only two years ago that Mother Dairy entered its first market outside Delhi -UP and Punjab. Today, it's extended its operation to Haryana, Jaipur, Mumbai and Kolkata as well. Next year, it plans to go south to Hyderabad and Bangalore. In the case of butter and cheese, it's present across north India, Mumbai and Kolkata, and has plans to enter Bangalore by year-end. In UTH milk, it has entered Mumbai and the milk-short areas of West Bengal and north-east. For ghee, although the current focus is the northern region, it has plans for a nationwide presence.
3. Product Differentiation: While Mother Dairy still may not have a product portfolio as large as Amul, which is also expanding across the country in a big way and is a much bigger player, it's doing its bit. Mother Dairy says the idea is not just to enter new markets, but to do well in those markets - which mean bigger market shares in the different product categories in whichever market it is present. The drivers will be value created through quality of the offerings as well as innovations in products. This will, of course, be backed by relevant marketing and promotion campaigns. Mother Dairy is bringing in mass Indian flavors which are building up in terms absolute percentage of contribution. Their attempt is to make the taste experience in ice creams as familiar as possible so as to increase consumption. Take the case of curd. It started off very slow but today, Mother Dairy claims it's growing at close to 60 per cent year-on-year in Kolkata. Here again, the Indian flavors formula seems to have worked. While curd from an MNC player is probably based on international formulation, they formulated it to taste as close to home-made curd as possible. If the offering fits well with the India consumer, the resistance is lower and acceptance more.
4. Smart Marketing: On the marketing front, Mother Dairy says it's trying to take its product campaigns and communications to a higher platform. For instance, in the case of milk, the campaigns do not talk about the obvious benefits - milk is good for health, it has calcium and so on - but rather it targets children and are created around ideas such as "The country needs you, grow faster".
As far as products such as butter, cheese and ice creams go, the campaigns have been created around "taste". For butter again, the focus is on children. Here, Mother Dairy has dared to go different. Since 60 per cent butter is consumed by kids, the company wants them to sit up and take notice of its butter. Makkhan Singh, a sturdy jovial cow (a cartoon character) has been made its brand ambassador.
It's cheese for children again. A couple of years ago, Mother Dairy carried out a retail activity: "Cheese khao superhero ban jao", where kids buying cheese at a retail outlet were invited for a photo op - dressed as superheroes - through Polaroid cameras; and the framed photograph was presented to them. The activity was carried out in about 150 outlets in Delhi and Mumbai, with about 20,000-25,000 snaps being taken. Cheese was also something that helped the company bond better with its retailers. Couple of years ago, retailers in Delhi displayed banners proclaiming, "Cheese ke saath Bees ki cheez," a proposal that said if a consumer buys Mother Dairy cheese, the retailer can offer him anything worth Rs 20 from the shop - which worked better than offering something free with the product, which the consumer didn't even needs.
The exercise resulted in better ties with retailers. A positive response made Mother Dairy to repeat it in Kolkata as well. Clearly, Mother Dairy has aggressive plans. But, strong regional brands and other co-operatives will continue to give it tough competition.
Diversification Moves by Mother Diary:-
After becoming a pan-India player recently, dairy chain Mother Dairy, a subsidiary of the National Diary Development Board, is now eyeing a turnover of one billion dollar in the next two years.
Following expansion of their business in other cities and with the launch of new products, they are expecting to cross one billion dollar turnover by the end of financial year 2012. The dairy chain's top line has been growing at a rate of 22-25 per cent per annum and is expecting a turnover of Rs 2,700 crore this fiscal. Mother Dairy will be the second dairy chain in the country after Amul to cross the one billion turnover milestone, if it achieves the target.
For over three decades, Mother Dairy restricted its presence mainly in the National Capital Region in the fresh milk and other milk products segment. This year it went for a market expansion across the country. They have a plan to capture all the top six markets in the milk and milk products segment in the country.
Competition in Different Products:
The nature of competition varied among the different products. In the case of liquid milk, competition was from private dairies and contractors. There was also competition from newly emerging private dairies that had started supplying milk to the consumers as well as sweet makers. There was intense competition for the supply of milk, which was sought after, especially in the festival seasons, by the sweet makers who derived large profits from the sale of their sweets. Consumers were generally not very particular about the brand of liquid milk, so that the sales depended to a large extent on dealer push. However, there was scope to establish differentiation through apprising the customers of the quality not only of the initial milk itself, but also the quality of the supply chain, which ensured the stability of milk.
For butter and cheese, new entrants were making their mark. Britannia, a firm engaged in manufacture and sale of biscuits, had entered into foods business, and more particularly in milk and milk related products such as butter. Britannia had introduced new forms of cheese such as cheddar cheese slices, and supported its products with extensive advertising campaigns. It was believed that advertisements played a powerful role in the demand for particular brands of butter and cheese.
Conclusion:
Mother Dairy looked at all its operations, strengths and weaknesses as well as opportunities available, and came to the conclusion that it had to become more customer centered (rather than merely being farmer or supplier centered). This required paying close attention to the customer needs and quality. Mother Dairy realized that it was not enough that Mother Dairy itself was wedded to these ideas; the entire supply chain had to conform. Hence it launched a “Total Quality Management” or TQM to ensure the high quality of the products from the starting point (the village farmer who supplied milk) right through the value chain until it reached the consumer. This meant the need for the involvement of farmers, transporters, factory personnel, wholesalers and retailers, each of whom had a role to play.