GUWAHATI: The West Assam Milk Producers’ Cooperative Union Ltd (WAMUL), popularly known as Purabi Dairy, is taking the diversification route to bolster its presence amidst competition from established national players.
WAMUL, which sells packed liquid milk and milk products such as paneer, curd (plain and sweet), cream and ghee, added another dimension to its product line-up on Monday by introducing Purabi Lassi in two variants (sweet and mango).
“The vision of WAMUL is based on diversification into feasible products which would add value to the milk produced by the dairy farmers. While the product plan cannot be disclosed now, consumers can certainly expect more products in the days to come,” WAMUL managing director S.B. Bose told The Shillong Times on Monday.
Currently, WAMUL has a market share of 60 per cent in Assam. It has over 1600 retail outlets in Guwahati alone and over 300 across the state.
The union achieved a turnover of Rs 93crore in 2017-18. “We are looking at a turnover of Rs 140crore by the end of 2018-19, we, which we believe we can achieve. We already have a robust procurement system in place with nearly 200 village based functional milk producer institutions and dairy cooperative societies covering over 5000 farmers,” Bose said.
Launching the product here, Assam minister for cooperation, Rihon Daimary complimented WAMUL for striking an emotional connect with consumers through Purabi and encouraged the brand to establish a presence outside the state as well.
As against a daily demand of 60lakh litres in Assam, the state produces only about 12 lakh litres every day. Guwahati alone has a milk demand of over 3lakh litres every day.
“The dairy sector is going through a transformation and Purabi today is the taste of Assam. From the department, we will ensure full support to the milk cooperative societies who are associated with WAMUL,” Daimary said.
Formed in 1989 and taken over by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in May 2008, WAMUL’s milk-producing capacity has shot up from 500 litres per day to over 60,000 litres per day.
The milk union sells packaged milk and milk products in the markets of Guwahati and towns such as Jorhat, Nalbari, Rangiya, Nagaon and Tezpur. The cooperative also provides milk to defence establishments in Assam and Meghalaya.
Asked about any plans to expand to Meghalaya, he said, “There is no such plan as logistics is a constraint. But we do have an interest in having a presence in Shillong,” he said.
Of late, national brands such as Amul (which has an automated plant at Chandrapur near here) and to a lesser extent Sudha ( a brand from Bihar) have forayed into markets in Assam.
“Competition spurs us to grow further and come out with better products,” the managing director said.