By Rohit Vaid

New Delhi, Nov 9 (IANS): F&B major Mother Dairy plans to consolidate its market share via new launches as well as more touchpoints.

Consequently, the company is optimistic of a robust growth this fiscal on the back of a healthy demand environment.

In a conversation with IANS, Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable's Managing Director Manish Bandlish elaborated: "We have experienced sequential as well as yearly growth this year as the demand grew both ways."

"Majority of our businesses including milk, value-added milk products, Dhara edible oils and Safal's frozen portfolio collectively contributed to this growth, helping us achieve over 20 per cent growth in October 2021 vs. the same month last year."

Besides, Bandlish credited e-commerce platform to have give an additional push to the growth momentum.

"The categories that we operate in saw a limited impact during the first wave last year and we sailed through as we are one of the key suppliers of essential commodities. Given the severity of the second wave this year, the impact was also on the business side in some of the categories such as 'Ice Creams'."

"However, the revival has been remarkable despite the decline in panic buying unlike last year."

In fact, he cited record sales of ice creams in July when the lockdown was eased.

"So far, this year saw consistent supplies as varied channels such as e-commerce continued big-time."

Furthermore, Bandlish referred to the festive season 2021 as a major growth driver as several categories such as butter, cheese, ghee, sweets, milk and edible oils have outperformed on a year-on-year basis.

"Even the production levels for various categories have reached pre-Covid levels, some passing the threshold barring a few categories. Overall, we are hoping to have a good year."

About the company's plan to set-up around 700 touchpoints in Delhi by FY23, he said these will be in the form of kiosks and franchise shops.

At present, Mother Dairy is one of the largest retailers of milk and milk products in the NCT of Delhi.

"With the addition of planned touchpoints, we will further cover the length and breadth of this region with a collective count of over 2,500 exclusive Mother Dairy consumer touchpoints."

On new launches, Bandlish pointed out that the consumption trend which began to change last year is still persistent, "with in-home consumption and preference for packaged foods going strong".

"Overall, the consumer pack segment across categories have grown multifold, whereas the institutional segment is still catching up."

"With focus towards convenience and nutritional offerings, we will continue to launch new products going ahead."

Last year, the company introduced health enhancing beverage 'Haldi Milk'.

It further strengthened its portfolio of nutritional offerings with the launch of probiotic yoghurts.