Danone has launched a flavoured milk in India, marking the French food giant’s first dairy launch in the country.
The firm confirmed today (15 February) that it has launched Choco Plus milk in Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh, which has around 6m inhabitants.
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The 200ml product is priced at INR16 (US$0.13) and is being produced in a dairy product plant based in Pune, near Bombay.
A spokesperson for Danone told just-food: “We operate in a very centralised business and we always launch products locally. This is the first launch for dairy products in India.”
Danone booked an increase in full-year profits last week and saw like-for-like sales in Asia up 11%.
In the rest of the world like-for-like sales were up 8% but, in Europe, like-for-like sales dropped 0.3%.
Danone has also announced plans to double the production of dairy products at its new THB572m plant in Thailand in order to push into other south-east Asian markets as early as next year.
“Danone is pretty much exposed to the emerging markets,” the spokesperson told just-food. “We have more than 40% sales in emerging markets and so the potential is huge. It is one of the areas where we are very active.”
The firm said it was too early to say whether it would consider launching further dairy products in the country.
“India is such a big country. We are not at the potential of what we could be there,” the spokesperson said.
In April, Danone exited Britannia Industries, the country’s largest biscuit maker, by selling its 25.48% stake in the company to its joint venture partner Wadia group after a bitter two-year boardroom battle.
Other interests in India include a joint venture with Japanese firm Yakult Honsha and a joint venture with Narang Hospitality Services, the distributor for Evian in India.
