Gopaljee Group Forays Into Food Retail Business With First Shop In Gurgaon
By Sanjay Sharma, Section Good Eating Places Around?
Posted on Mon Jul 26, 2004 at 12:50:28 PM EST
From dairy to food retail, the Delhi-based Rs 200-crore Gopaljee Group is all set to take the big leap. The city’s third largest liquid milk player is readying to take a pie of the fast-growing food retail business by opening 100 exclusive food outlets in the next
three years in the Capital.
To be branded Gopaljee Happy Hours, the stores will be positioned as family joints which serve ethnic and Indian food a la Haldiram. To test the concept, the company has opened its first outlet in Gurgaon while the second will open next month in Delhi. “We have spent about Rs 3 crore so far on these two outlets, and we plan to further invest about Rs 15 lakh on each outlet we open,” GK Dairy & Allied Products director RS Dixit said.
In the current year, the company plans to open six company-owned outlets in Delhi and the national capital region (NCR). The company already has 24 outlets in Delhi and the NCR region which retail its dairy products. GK Dairy has also set up its first centralised production unit at Tughlaqabad in Delhi.
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According to analysts, the food retail business in the country is growing at the rate of 100 per cent year-on-year. Delhi currently has a surfeit of food retail chains including multinational fast-food giants such as Pizza Hut, McDonald’s and others, and also desi, local chains like Nirula’s, Haldiram and others who sell almost anything from pizzas to puris.
Meanwhile, GK Dairy is also expanding its dairy product portfolio. While it has entered into flavoured milk and paneer market recently, GK also plans to launch curd under Gopaljee brand, soon. Cheese and flavoured milk drinks are expected to experience robust growth in the coming years, albeit from a small base.
The group at present has three milk plants with a milk handling capacity of 4 lakh litres per day (LLPD). While one is located at Siyan (UP), with a capacity of 75,000-1,25,000 litres per day, the second one is at Jarar (Agra) and the third plant at Ballabhgarh (Haryana). The company is also planning to set up another dairy plant in Lucknow with a capacity of 1-lakh litre per day.
GK Dairy has also revamped its packaging and has signed on a new agency Confluence. The company spent about Rs 2 crore last year on advertising and plans to spend the same amount this year too.
From The Financial Express - July 26, 2004 - by Pummy Kaul
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