Started selling paneer for South Indian hotels: Class VIII dropout who took over family's failing milk business built a Rs 10,000 crore dairy empire; here's who he is

Started making paneer for South Indian hotels with a 10kg batch sent in a plastic bag to Bengaluru in 1993, Sathish Kumar has built Milky Mist into one of India's most recognised dairy brands, with an IPO that closed fully subscribed on its second day of bidding this week.

The offering, which opened on 12 August 2026, received bids for 154.16 million shares, 1.88 times the shares on offer, according to exchange data reported by Reuters. Retail investors subscribed 2.20 times their allotted portion. Non-institutional investors came in at 2.95 times. The Rs 1,553 crore IPO had already raised Rs 465 crore from 19 anchor investors before bidding opened, including Singapore state investor Temasek's Jongsong Investments, the International Finance Corporation, and HDFC Mutual Fund.

At the top end of its price band of Rs 133 to Rs 140 per share, Milky Mist is seeking a valuation of approximately Rs 10,778 crore, just over half the market value of larger rival Hatsun Agro Product.


Class VIII Dropout Who Took Over a Failing Milk Business

Kumar dropped out of school in Class VIII. At the time, his father's milk business in Erode district in Tamil Nadu was on the verge of shutting down after two years of consecutive losses. Kumar took it over and spent time trying to salvage it before deciding to pivot entirely.

In the early 1990s, paneer had no established retail market in South India. Kumar started making it and supplying it to hotels near his home. That first batch, 10kg of paneer in a plastic bag, was sent to Bengaluru in 1993. Two years later, in 1995, the family wound up the milk business entirely to focus on value-added products. By 1997, Milky Mist products were on retail shelves.

"Education is important, but it's practical experience that teaches you to think on your feet, take risks and succeed," Kumar told the Times of India in an earlier interview.

How Milky Mist Built India's Largest Paneer Plant

The company's manufacturing base is in Perunthurai in Erode district, about 430 kilometres west of Chennai. Kumar has been building what he described as the largest single-location paneer manufacturing plant in Asia in terms of volume and automation, spread across 30 acres, with an investment of Rs 450 crore. The plant has the capacity to process 10 lakh litres of milk per day.

The existing facility was already 70 per cent automated when Kumar described his expansion plans publicly. The new plant, equipped with machinery designed specifically for paneer production by German manufacturer Alpma, is designed to be fully automated to raise hygiene standards further.

A significant byproduct of paneer and cheese processing is whey powder. Kumar said Milky Mist incurs zero material cost on whey powder and sells it to biscuit manufacturers, but noted the economics only work at scale with the right machinery.

Since March 2016, the Perunthurai plant has been running on solar energy and generates more power than it consumes.

Milky Mist vs Amul: How a South Indian Brand Carved Its Niche

In a market dominated by Amul, Milky Mist built its position through a sharp focus on supply chain efficiency and waste reduction. Kumar made reefer trucks mandatory for secondary distribution and invested approximately Rs 4 lakh per vehicle per distributor to supply visi coolers to retail outlets for product storage.

Kumar attributed the failure of French dairy giant Danone's India operations, which shut down around the same time Milky Mist was expanding, directly to supply chain gaps. "Theirs was a flawed strategy. They did not supply reefer trucks. Supply chain was not in order, leading to high return rates," he said.

Milky Mist sources milk from 35,000 dairy farmers and today offers more than 20 products including paneer, cheese, ghee, cream, and payasam.

Milky Mist IPO and What Comes Next

The IPO comprises a fresh issue of shares worth Rs 1,428 crore and an offer for sale of shares worth Rs 125 crore by founders Sathish Kumar and Anitha S. The company had originally planned a larger offering of Rs 2,035 crore before cutting the size following the pre-listing deal with Temasek.

Speaking at a press conference on 12 August, CEO K. Rathnam said Milky Mist will continue to focus on value-added dairy products rather than pouch milk, where growth is slower. The company currently earns the bulk of its revenue from cottage cheese, cheese, and yogurt.

Exports account for less than 5 per cent of revenue at present. Rathnam said the company expects that share to grow to between 5 and 6 per cent over time, without specifying a timeline. Milky Mist currently exports to Singapore, the Middle East, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia.

(With inputs from TOI and Reuters)