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R. Balaji

Chennai , Aug. 5

HATSUN Agro Product Ltd, the Chennai-based private dairy, plans to strengthen its market reach in the current year to nearly double its milk handling by mid-2004.

According to Mr R.G. Chandramogan, Chairman and Managing Director, Hatsun Agro, the company plans to set up a dairy unit in Madurai at a cost of Rs 11 crore and a packing station at Vandavasi, Tiruvannamalai district, at a cost of Rs 3 crore to extend its market reach.

The company hopes to handle over 11-lakh litres milk per day by June 2004 against the current level of 6.5 lakh litres, he said. During the current year the company is consolidating its position in its various markets including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala, while expanding capacities and infrastructure, he said.

The new dairy that is to come up in Madurai was earlier envisaged at Tirunelveli, however, the company feels that Madurai would be a better location in terms of market distribution to the south, he said. The packing station at Vandavasi will help Hatsun extend its market in Thanjavur and surrounding areas, which would be served by the dairy at Kanchipuram, he said. The company has two other dairies located at Belgaum and Salem and packing stations at Madurai and Coimbatore. A packing station chills, stores and packs the milk that has been processed at the main dairies.

According to company officials, the new dairy will add another two lakh litres per day capacity over the existing 10-lakh litres capacity. At Bangalore, the company has taken a dairy unit on contract with a capacity to handle over one-lakh litres per day. A Rs 6-crore milk powder unit at Kanchipuram is expected to commence production in October. Such a facility is a new initiative for a private sector dairy, according to Mr Chandramogan.

In Chennai, Hatsun plans to introduce a third delivery service, which will mean that its distributors get fresh stocks of milk three times a day instead of two times in practice now. Consumers will be assured of fresh stocks since the distributors need not hold larger inventories or carry over stocks to the next day, he said.

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