According to Devendra Shah, Chairman, Parag Milk Foods Limited, the GO Cheese business has a huge demand from hotels, restaurants and retail stores

GO CHEESE, a brand under Parag Milk Foods that produce 60 MT ton cheese per day in its Manchar plant is all set to expand the business by launching flavours like Chocolate Cheese. With more than 60 variants, GO Cheese has also been the pioneers to Indianise the cheese with desi flavours like garlic, spice and mint. At present, Go Cheese enjoys 33 percent of the market share.

From just one dairy farm 25 years ago, Parag Milk Foods has a diversified dairy products portfolio today. It manufactures milk products under brand names such as Gowardhan, GO, Topp Up and Pride of Cows. The product portfolio includes ghee, fresh milk, skim milk powder, whole milk powder, paneer, an array of processed and natural cheese, cheese spreads, butter, dahi, dairy whitener and gulab jamun mix under the Gowardhan and GO brands.

GO Cheese with its modern equipment, high quality, customizable solutions and 60mt production capabilities have ensured that the highly organized institutional buyers have to look no further. As per the recent report, India has a potential of 15-30 per cent plus growth in value added products like cheese, whey, UHT milk over the next few years. “Additionally, the changing consumer lifestyle and consumption patterns are giving companies an opportunity to meet the demands by bringing variety in consumers’ life. We see a huge opportunity for dairy companies to tap the value-added products category,” says Devendra Shah, Chairman, Parag Milk Foods Limited in an interaction with BW BusinessWorld.

The increasing household income levels along with the value-added dairy products growing demand from HoReCa (hotels, restaurants and café) channel are driving the consumption of cheese. According to Shah, the GO Cheese business has a huge demand from hotels, restaurants and retail stores. “Demand from consumers motivated us to introduce different flavours of cheese and be the innovators in the category. After receiving immense love from consumers on ‘Chutney’ cheese, we introduced four new flavours last year, which includes Kaccha aam, Piri Piri, schezwan and achari -in a combo pack for people to experiment with food,” he adds.

For the brand, cow’s milk is the biggest differentiator as all the products are claimed to be made from 100 percent cow milk. Being a cheese player, the company always had whey as a by-product that they wanted to convert into powder for sportsmen, athletes and fitness enthusiasts. Keeping this factor in mind, Parag Milk food recently launched Avvatar absolute Whey protein which is first of its kind in India. The entire process is automated and involves zero human intervention.

Parag Milk Foods reported a healthy set of numbers for the Q4FY18 with 20.9 percent yoy growth in the revenue to Rs 517.8 Cr. Earlier in April, the company acquired the Danone Foods and Beverages India Pvt Ltd.’s manufacturing facility at Sonipat, Haryana.