Britannia adds to its dairy business

Britannia Industries, India’s top biscuit maker, is expanding its dairy portfolio, according to its managing director.

The company, which also makes cheese, is test-marketing yogurt in Bangalore and will extend it to other markets soon.

Britannia, controlled through equal indirect stakes held by French Danone and India’s Wadia Group, and as such part of the conflict between the two companies, has a separate dairy venture with New Zealand’s Fonterra.

Improved infrastructure and an expansion in modern retail in India, the world’s top milk producer, are helping to boost demand for value-added dairy products in the country. Nestle India has a big share of the market for branded yogurt.

Britannia reported a 19 per cent rise in net profit in the fiscal first quarter to end-June 2007 to 361 million rupees (EUR6.5m) from a year earlier, and said pressure from high prices of raw materials like milk and wheat would persist this year.