Nilgiri’s to foray into Andhra Pradesh soon  ( July '23,2008, Hindu Business Line)

Nilgiri’s, the 100-year-old South-based company with interests in dairy, bakery and retail areas, will make a foray into Andhra Pradesh in the next two months.

A company official said that the chain has identified properties and plans to open at least 10 stores in a couple of months in Hyderabad. The retail chain currently has 100 outlets with a large presence in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, and has made a recent entry into Kochi, Kerala.

Explaining the rationale for its focus on the South for growth, Mr Prabhu Ramachandran, Director, The Nilgiri Dairy Farm Pvt Ltd, told Business Line, “We want to be a sizeable player in a certain market rather than spreading ourselves thin across the country.

“We see our future growth coming from the convenience model and expanding our portfolio of private labels.”

The plan for the next two years is to take the number of retail outlets to 240 by March 2009 and to about 400 by March 2010. Nilgiri’s now offers about 1,200 private labels which are particularly strong in the bakery and dairy segments.

The company is in the process of setting up two hi-tech distribution centres of one lakh sq. ft each at Bangalore and Chennai, which would be functional in October. Meanwhile, a search is on to replace the outgoing managing director, Mr N.C. Venugopal, who is moving on to join an engineering firm.

Private equity firm Actis picked up a majority stake in Nilgiri Dairy Farm Ltd in September 2006, which was a family managed business, till then. Actis has so far invested Rs 300 crore, including Rs 75 crore in infrastructure of the company.