NEW DELHI — Mother Dairy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), has announced that it expects a 5% volume growth for the current financial year. The cooperative dairy giant is aggressively pushing to break its localized image and establish itself as a dominant national player by scaling up operations far beyond its traditional stronghold of the Delhi-NCR region.
“We want to change the perception of Mother Dairy as the NCR brand,” Meenesh Shah, Chairman of the NDDB and Mother Dairy, stated in an interview with Business Today. “We have entered non-NCR markets long back—Mumbai, for example, where we have a sizable presence. We are in the Hyderabad market, and we have launched in Rajasthan and Bihar.”
Macro Revenue Projections & Infrastructure Backing
The company’s overarching fiscal strategy is aiming for a 20% revenue growth target for the 2026–27 financial year (FY27), positioning itself to surpass a ₹24,000 crore turnover milestone. This comes on the heels of a highly successful performance in FY26, where Mother Dairy recorded a turnover of ₹20,300 crore—a 17% increase over the previous year.
To support this rapid multi-state scaling, Mother Dairy and its leadership team are deploying significant structural expansions:
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Geographic Revenue Shift: Historically centered in the capital, Mother Dairy currently draws 63% of its revenue from Delhi-NCR and 37% from the rest of India. The immediate goal is to shift the non-NCR revenue share up to 43–45% in the coming year.
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Processing Capabilities: The firm is actively building its own dairy processing plant in Maharashtra, developing a second plant in Bihar, and has acquired a processing facility on lease in Hyderabad to streamline local liquid milk supply chains.
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Current Operational Footprint: The company currently manages 9 core milk-processing plants, 4 specialized horticulture facilities, and works through 16 associated factories for its “Dhara” edible oil portfolio.
Navigating Geopolitical Headwinds and Rising Input Costs
The business expansion is moving forward despite challenging macroeconomic pressures. Ongoing geopolitical instability in West Asia has caused a cascading surge in foundational operational costs for Indian agricultural supply chains.
“Like it is for any industry, our input costs have increased,” Shah explained. “For example, packing materials cost has gone up by almost 30%. Logistics cost has also gone up with the increase in petrol and diesel prices.“
Despite these constraints, Shah confirmed that Mother Dairy is successfully absorbing these margins and maintaining smooth product distribution networks. To offset a 6% hike in direct farmer procurement expenses, the company rolled out a retail price increase of ₹2 per liter across its liquid milk varieties in May. When questioned by Business Today regarding potential secondary price hikes to counter rising fuel metrics, Shah directly stated: “We don’t plan to take another price hike.”
Furthermore, downplaying anxieties regarding the impact of erratic El Niño weather systems on total milk outputs, Shah emphasized India’s vast geography. He noted that lower milk generation in localized regions would easily be counterbalanced by surplus procurement corridors elsewhere in the country.
Green Innovations and Portfolio Upgrades
Coinciding with its national market push, Mother Dairy announced the launch of India’s first naturally soil-degradable milk pouch.
The new eco-friendly packaging is designed to break down naturally within a few years of disposal rather than persisting for centuries. It is being debuted initially across the cow milk variant—which accounts for 35% of the brand’s milk sales—in the Delhi-NCR market.
Crucially, corporate management stated that the additional manufacturing expenses required for this sustainable shift will not be passed onto consumers. “The additional cost we are incurring will be absorbed as our contribution to the environment,” Shah concluded.
Concurrently, the brand is modernizing its consumer catalog to match changing urban health trends. A prime example includes the national launch of premium functional lines like “Promilk,” which delivers 30% more protein per serving compared to standard commercial milk profiles.
