Parag Milk Foods to flood country with dairy parlours

Parag Milk Foods, the owner of dairy brands such as Gowardhan and Go, is all set to create a white flood with dairy parlours across the country. By January next, it hopes to open 150 milk, cheese and yoghurt outlets, through the franchise route.

Mr Devendra Shah, Parag's Managing Director and Founder, said, “The idea of opening these cheese and yoghurt parlours is to promote the brand and its visibility in the Indian market.”

The outlets will store all our cheese products along with

lassi , ghee and flavoured milk. “These are franchise outlets, so our investment would be insignificant,” he said.

The dairy parlous will also educate people on the origin, making and varieties of cheese. He added that the company will be launching more natural and seasonal fruit flavoured yoghurt and

lassi (sweetened butter-milk). Parag has already launched chocolate flavoured cheese in tubes for kids.

The company, located in Manchar near Pune, was founded in 1992 and houses Asia's largest cheese plant with an output capacity of 40 tonnes a day. It has over 3,500 Holstein and Jersey cows.

Known as the Milkman from Manchar, Mr Shah has been able to carve a niche for himself in the growing cheese market in India. Players in this market include Britannia and Amul. The company has grown from Rs 80-crore to Rs 1,000-crore in just two decades.