BENGALURU: Ready-to-cook packaged food company iD Fresh Foods has partnered with NilgiriBSE 0.00 % Dairy Farm to produce dairy products such as paneer and curd. This is the first dairy-based product line by iD, which is known for its packaged idli and dosa batter.
Paneer was launched last week, while curd will be launched on Saturday, said PC Musthafa, CEO at iD Fresh Foods. The dairy products will be manufactured by Nilgiri while the recipe will be provided by iD. Nilgiri’s is one of the oldest supermarket chains in India, with origins dating back to Nilgiri Dairy Farm, in 1905.
Musthafa said dairy procurement was the critical reason for the tie-up. “Nilgiri’s is strong in dairy back-end and milk procurement. We are using them to manufacture natural paneer and natural curd as per iD recipe. We are happy with this partnership,” Musthafa said.
The collaboration also has advantages for Nilgiri, according to Nilgiri Dairy Farm CEO Murali Krishnan. “While our total production capacity is 1.2 lakh litres per day, our utilization is about 50% today. Since we have just started manufacturing for iD, we see an immediate projection of producing 4,000 more litres every day, which could go up to 10,000 litres per day in a few months,” Krishnan said. He called the tie-up with iD a “natural fit”, as the two companies have already worked on co-branded batter products before.
“We have had similar tie-ups with a few brands earlier. But we do it selectively and the main criteria are that it should be a good brand,” Krishnan said.
The dairy products will be sold under iD Fresh Food’s brand and the company expects strong revenues from it.
“We have seen very good traction on our paneer product in just one week. We expect it to contribute 25% to our revenues by the end of Q4,” Musthafa said. Currently, the idli/dosa batter contributes 50% to the company’s revenues, while the parotha mix contributes 40%. Helion Ventures-backed iD Fresh Foods crossed a revenue of Rs 100 crore last year, Musthafa said. “We may close this year at Rs 180 crore,” Musthafa said.
iD entered four more cities— Coimbatore, Cochin, Palakkad, Trichur—in July, bringing its total presence to 14 cities, based mainly in southern India. It currently has seven manufacturing facilities.
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Source: Economic Times
