Britannia Bel Foods, a joint venture between Britannia Industries and France-based Bel Group, has opened its cheese factory in the Indian state of Maharashtra.

Located within Britannia Industries' dairy food park in Ranjangaon, the facility will focus exclusively on manufacturing The Laughing Cow cheese products. The Laughing Cow is a brand owned by Bel but the venture is locally marketing a range under the brand Britannia The Laughing Cow.

Built with an investment of around Rs2.2bn ($26.1m), the plant has five production lines. It has a total production capacity of approximately 6,000t per year for natural cheese varieties such as cheddar and mozzarella. The site can also produce around 10,000t per year of processed cheese.

Britannia Bel Foods CEO Abhishek Sinha said: “Britannia Bel Foods’s state-of-the-art cheese facility brings the best of Bel Foods’ global expertise to India, combining cutting-edge technology with world-class manufacturing standards.

“This facility further solidifies the relationship between Britannia and Bel, and the journey of further strengthening our cheese business in India, supported with a fully integrated dairy programme. With this, we are poised to offer Indian consumers an unmatched cheese experience, tailored to their evolving tastes.”

The opening of the facility comes nearly two years after the formation of Britannia Bel Foods by Britannia and Bel.

Under the terms of the deal, Bel acquired a share of Britannia’s wholly-owned subsidiary Britannia Dairy Private Limited, which was renamed Britannia Bel Foods Private Limited.

Bel paid Rs2.62bn ($32.1m) for its 49% stake, with Britannia holding the remaining 51% stake.