Amrit Food unveils tetrapak milk

Amrit Food, a division of the Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion) Amrit Banaspati Co, has launched its tetrapak milk called Gagan.

The company is vying the western and north-eastern markets to begin with for the supply of Gagan.

The tetrapak milk comes in co-extruded multi-layer film which allows higher shelf life of up to four months which ensures nil bacteria in milk and milk products.

The company has an established poly pouch milk market in northern India. The tetrapak milk product will directly compete with Nestle and Amul in the segment.

"We can now tap the western and north-eastern markets for our products as the shelf life of milk has dramatically increased from 10 hours to four months due to tetrapak containers," said A KTyagi, president, Amrit Food.

The company is expecting to sell around 300,000 litre of milk in Mumbai alone in the first year of its operations (2004-05). It has set a 30 per cent growth target in the following year.

Besides Mumbai, the company is planning to tap the Pune and Lonawala area along with the entire Chhattisgarh in the first year.

"We already have appointed stockists in these places," Tyagi said.

The company's milk is expected to hit 7,000-8,000 outlets in these places by the year end.

Amrit Foods is the sole supplier of Soft Serve Mix and Milk Shake Mix to Mc Donald's chain in the country. It is also the supplier of flavoured milk to Mother Dairy. The Gagan long life ultra heat treated milk and Gagan sterilised flavoured milk are sold directly by the company.

In 1968 Amrit Banaspati promoted a company called Amrit Protein Foods Ltd to produce soy milk and beverages and other soy-based products.

APFL was taken over by Amrit Banaspati in 1991 and later became Amrit Food.

Amrit Food diversified its manufacturing activities. It now produces milk and milk products. The company's plant is located at Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.