Mother Dairy to scale up D2C app, to invest Rs 1,400 crore on capex

Mother Dairy, which sells dairy products, edible oils under Dhara and Safal staples, fresh fruits and vegetables, and frozen snacks, is scaling up its own direct-to-consumer (D2C) app amid changing consumer buying patterns.

“We’ve run pilots of our D2C app in the Delhi NCR region for Safal and for dairy. We are gradually scaling up as we expand to more stores,” Mother Dairy’s managing director Manish Bandlish told ET.

The wholly-owned subsidiary of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), Mother Dairy plans to invest close to Rs 1,400 crore over the next two years on capacity expansion, both for greenfield facilities and increasing capacity in its existing plants.


Bandlish said demand for categories such as value-added dairy has not been impacted by the urban slowdown which has led to subdued demand for various other daily needs categories over the past four-five quarters. “Consumers are looking at quality alternatives, to convert from loose to branded products,” he said.

Mother Dairy is targeting sales of Rs 20,000 crore by FY27, compared to about Rs 17,500 crore of sales in the ongoing fiscal.

“While Safal and Dhara are already pan-India, we are expanding distribution of milk and milk products to across the country at a very fast pace,” Bandlish said.

The company announced its foray in the fast-growing protein market on Wednesday, a space where packaged foods makers are working to make protein consumption mainstream. Bandlish said the products, starting with protein-fortified Promilk, would be extended to other dairy products subsequently. “We are targeting families with affordable, daily-consumption protein products; not gym goers,” he said.