India’s consumer goods conglomerate ITC has forayed into the into dairy whitener market by launching its Sunfresh brand.
In October last year, it entered dairy business by introducing packaged ghee. Sunfresh brand is its second offering in the market.
With the latest launch, the Kolkata-based company has stepped up competition with top players in the space- Nestle and Amul, The Economic Times reported.
The combined share of the two companies in the dairy whitener segment currently stands at 85%.
ITC has rolled out Sunfresh in the North-East, where there is a shortage of milk supply. The region is the largest market for dairy whiteners in the country, valued at over Rs3.8bn.
The company will introduce the brand in the states of West Bengal and Kerala, before launching it across the nation.
According to Nielsen data, the North-East, West Bengal and Kerala account for over 60% of the dairy whitener business in India.
Overall, the value of the country's dairy whitener market exceeds Rs13.7bn, growing at a rate of 6% annually.
ITC FMCG business president B Sumant was quoted by the publication as saying: "We would soon enter few more categories in the dairy business.
"Our focus is on crafting value-added products in the dairy segment which would be superior and differentiated."
The company manufactures the dairy whiteners at its Munger plant in Bihar.
Earlier, ITC had said that it was considering various areas in the dairy space such as ice-cream, butter, cheese, curd, milk-based drinks and ready-to-mix products similar to Complan and Horlicks.
In May, the company said that it would invest over Rs 40bn ($593m) to set up eight new integrated food processing units in India by 2019.
It has also acquired land for the proposed plants in the Indian states of West Bengal, Assam, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.
