‘MooShake’, a dairy health beverage manufactured by Odisha-based Milk Mantra, is set to hit stores in Hyderabad this month and in Mumbai and Chennai by end-2015.
The milkshake, introduced in Bengaluru in June, contains curcumin, an extract from turmeric that is believed to have anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogenic properties and is regarded as an immunity booster.
“MooShake is a unique product since it’s the only dairy beverage globally to contain curcumin. We achieved our target of having the product in 1,000 stores in Bengaluru in three months and will launch it in Hyderabad this month. Mumbai and Chennai will follow,” said Srikumar Misra, Founder and Managing Director of the six-year-old venture.
Developed in-house, MooShake has a shelf life of 180 days and each pack contains 0.05 per cent of pure curcumin of 95 per cent strength. It took nearly three years of research and development to create the product.
Milkshakes are estimated to be a ₹1,000-crore category and is currently dominated by players, such as Amul, Mother Dairy, Nestle and Danone.
“The functional health ready-to-drink category is what we are looking to grow in. This is why we’re looking to scale up its presence across the country over the next 18 months,” Misra said.
He said exports to the US, the UK and Japan, will be undertaken in the near future since the properties of curcumin are well-known in developed markets.
The company, backed by about $18 million in venture capital funding, is also set to expand its processing capacity to 3 lakh litres of milk a day by December from 1 lakh litres a day currently.
It has two processing facilities, one at Gop near Konark and the other at Sambalpur, and procures milk from around 35,000 farmers. The Milky Moo brand of fresh dairy products, which includes fresh milk, paneer, lassi, and probiotic yoghurt, is available in Odisha and cities such as Kolkata, Ranchi and Jamshedpur.
“We’ve clocked 100 per cent growth over the last four years and are in the process of recording the same this fiscal where we expect a turnover of ₹150 crore. Fresh product sales outside Odisha will be taken up if we can find a strategic space,” Misra added.
Source : The Hindu Business Line