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Bhubaneswar, Dec 5: Mother Dairy, a subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), is looking to expand the footprint of its Safal outlets in the state. The company, which currently has outlets in the state only at fuel stations, intends to explore avenues outside. The company had started its fruits and vegetables retail chain in July with two outlets; it now has nine retail outlets.
“We hope to add six more outlets in the state. Educational institutions are on our radar and we hope to open five targeted outlets in non-fuel station localities,” Dilip Rath, the chairman of NDDB said and added that the company hopes to increase the total count of retail outlets to 25 by the next fiscal.
Rath was in the city to attend the inauguration of a scheme for senior citizens under which Mother Dairy would deliver purchases made by such customers to their homes for free. Under the scheme, the retailer would also extend to senior citizens free healthcare checks such as BMD, BMI, blood pressure and blood sugar. It will also hold free awareness sessions on the benefits of consuming fruits and vegetables.
According to Rath, the scheme is currently being run as a pilot in Bhubaneswar and will be scaled up and expanded to other parts of the country if it meets expectations.
“We have started the scheme in Bhubaneswar, which will help us to analyse the viability of the scheme and then we can expand it to our 380 outlets in Delhi NCR and to 15 outlets in Bengaluru,” Sanjeev Khanna, the Managing Director of Mother Dairy fruit & Vegetable said. He said Mother Dairy will soon adopt a similar scheme in the near future.
Rath also spoke about the GiftMilk initiative of NDDB. Under the scheme milk is being offered to children of six to eight districts, he said, and added that the initiative will also be extended to Maharashtra, Bihar and Karnataka to benefit about 20,000 students up to Class X.
“We have started a dialogue with the state milk federation to offer milk under the initiative to schoolchildren. A public sector enterprise has assured to back the scheme in the state,” he said. Flavoured milk will be offered in 200ml packs to schoolchildren under the scheme.
