The inception of Parag Milk Foods Limited (PMFL) was a turning point in India’s dairy industry. During 30 years of its journey, it has demonstrated the courage and zeal to transform the dairy landscape in India. Dairy is a huge category and the brand operates across categories from liquid milk to ghee, butter, cheese, and whey protein.

“80 percent of the dairy market is unorganized as consumers still prefer buying milk from the local shop. But now the market is slightly changing and we are seeing that people are trying to have more branded or packaged food, which will help in making the market more organized,” said Akshali Shah, Senior Vice President – Strategy, Sales, and Marketing, Parag Milk Foods.

Parag Milk Foods’ flagship brand ‘Gowardhan Ghee’ continues to enjoy the leadership position in the Cow Ghee segment, with a market share of 20 percent in this growing category. Additionally, cheese is also one of its strongest categories, with a market share of almost 34 percent. It is also the pioneer in premium milk with its Pride of Cows brand.

Distribution Network

Parag Milk Foods is directly supplying to more than five lakh retail outlets, which includes general trade and modern trade. In modern trade, the brand has a presence in convenience stores like DMart, Reliance, BigBasket, etc.

The brand believes it has created a niche for itself in Tier I and II markets, hence, it plans to penetrate deeper into Tier III and IV towns.

“Tier II and beyond are also focussed markets for us as consumers from those regions are also seeking branded food products,” asserted Shah.

“Our next big milestone is to reach 1 million retail outlets directly,” she further added.

One of the biggest growth drivers for the brand is North and East India. Going forward, it plans to focus on markets like Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Growth of E-Commerce Biz

Apart from its website, Parag Milk Foods is available on various e-commerce marketplaces like BigBasket, Amazon, Flipkart, DMart, JioMart, etc.

Shah explained that e-commerce is one of the crucial pillars of the company’s distribution strategy as it helps it broaden its reach to the markets with lower incremental advertising spending. This distribution platform gives it higher visibility to capture market share. 

“Our e-commerce business has grown threefold in the last fiscal, and we have seen demand picking up across segments and categories at an accelerated pace,” she further stated.

Product Portfolio

Parag Milk Foods is offering over 200 SKUs, from milk to ghee, cheese, paneer, whey protein, etc. The company has four well-known brands including Gowardhan, Go, Pride of Cows, and Avvatar. 

The company’s core categories of ghee, cheese, paneer, and sports nutrition have been performing better than the industry average. In the paneer category, Parag Milk Foods has a huge opportunity as this is a highly unorganized segment. With its distinctive offering of being fresh with a 75-day shelf life, ‘Gowardhan Paneer’ is quickly gaining market acceptance.

The company takes pride in offering newer flavors and formats of cheese as a dominant player in the rapidly expanding and evolving modern dairy segment. ‘Go Cheese’ currently holds around 35 percent market share and is expected to grow in this rapidly expanding industry.

Its sports nutrition brand ‘Avvatar’ which was launched in 2017 has seen strong acceptance into the rapidly expanding health and nutrition market. It is the first company in India to produce fresh, vegetarian whey protein.

Recently, Parag added a mango milkshake and mango lassi to its portfolio. With this new launch, now its beverages portfolio of Go milkshake offers five flavors, namely Vanilla, Coffee, Chocolate, Strawberry, and Mango.

Additionally, a first in the category of affordable whey, the company has launched its whey-based drink – RAPID at the price point of Rs 10 in two flavors - lemon and orange - and comes in a 125 ml pack.

“Going forward, we would be focusing on launching more health and nutrition-based products. To continue on our journey to be a health and nutrition company, we have introduced high-potential lactose products which have added value to our cheese and whey business,” Shah explained.

Marketing Strategy

The brand is planning to invest heavily in digital strategies.

“We are exploring all sorts of communication mediums for marketing the products. We are now focused on more impact marketing. For instance, recently Parag Milk Foods associated with Kaun Banega Crorepati and Super Singer which had a larger impact and helped it take the brand Gowardhan ghee and Go cheese to the next level,” she stated.

Embedding Tech

Parag Milk Foods uses cutting-edge technology to deliver high-quality value-added products to its customers over the last three decades. Its innovative approach is reflected not only in redefining newer categories but also across the manufacturing value chain right from dairy farming to milk procurement, to product development, processing, distribution, as well as branding.

“We are also in the process of building our own app, where consumers can interact and engage with us directly, and also place an order within the app. This app will be operational by the end of this year,” she informed.

Future Plans

The company has been growing at the rate of 20-25 percent year-on-year. It currently exports to more than 25 countries.

“We are eyeing the western market, predominantly the US market for our flagship brand Gowardhan Ghee and other consumer products. We want to build our presence in the UAE market as well,” Shah said.