We are first in India to introduce pro-biotic yogurt: Murginns

What is the reason behind the growing culture of Yogurt in India?

Yogurt has become an essential part of our lifestyle nowadays. People are increasingly becoming more health conscious and focus on low calorie foods is gaining popularity as they offer a host of benefits. Nowadays, yogurt is available in a wide range - such as variety of flavors, fruit based, pro-biotic as per the increase in demand and expectations of the consumers.

How has been it evolved in all these years?

Dahi has been an integral part of Indian household in daily diet. In last 10 years, we have witnessed the emergence of packaged dahi which slowly grew in popularity with changing lifestyle and lack of time on part of working women who look for convenience. Making dahi is quite a challenge and people have now started appreciating the availability of fresh, standardized and creamy dahi. Once dahi became a popular fixture, yogurt was the next trend. Internationally, yogurt is extremely popular as a healthy food/snack option. So over the last few years, we have seen many players entering this sector and today, there is a wide range of flavored, fruit based and pro-biotic yogurt available in the market.

What is the power punch of eating yogurt?

Yogurt is nutritionally rich in Protein, Calcium, Riboflavin, Vitamin B6 and Vitamin B12. It has nutritional benefits beyond those of milk. Lactose-intolerant individuals can sometimes tolerate yogurt better than other dairy products, because the lactose in the milk is converted to glucose and galactose and partially fermented to lactic acid by the bacterial culture. Yogurt is a valuable health food for both infants and elderly persons.

What are the different varieties of yogurt available at Murginns?

We have introduced a range of delicious health and lifestyle products such as Pro-biotic Real Fruit Yoghurt in four ranges: Mango, Strawberry, Peach and Pineapple.

How has been the response till now?

We have quite an amazing response to our yogurt. Our dahi has been appreciated to being closest to a good home-made version in taste and texture. We are the first player in India to introduce Pro-biotic yogurt with real fruit puree in four different flavors. Besides retail, we also provide to large number of institutions like hotels and hospitals.

Can you please share some data about your growth in the Indian market and also on an average what is the footfall per week?

The growth in fermented dairy products has surpassed all barriers with almost 80 per cent of the dairy plants manufacturing one or other fermented variant. Traditionally, in India, the curd or dahi and all major fermented products like Lassi, Chachh were made at home. Today, most of them are available in the retail market in various flavours and packs.

After milk, dahi is the most consumed dairy product in India. Our grandmothers and mothers cultured all these fermented products at home. This orthodox method did not give the same attributes of the final product every single time. Now, this is replaced by dahi in cups, which gives the same taste and all the attributes every single time. The launch of this segment was a turning point in the history of the Indian Dairy Sector. This has fuelled a tremendous growth in the consumer product segment
Consumer education coupled with health awareness has driven the shift from unorganised to organised segment for fermented products, thereby taking the volumes sky high in the recent past. The major factors which have led to such growth are – rapid urbanisation, growing retail market in India, rise in bovine population and marketing campaigns of various manufactures that have revolutionised the Indian consumption pattern in the FMCG segment. This has not only increased the consumption, but the competition to occupy the shelves has become fierce.

What are the must have ingredients for yogurt?

Dahi, real fruit, pro-biotic culture, sugar and natural flavor.

What are the marketing strategies that you have used at Murginns?

Point of purchase and experiential for our potential customers are key focus areas for us. We frequently do tasting session at wide range of events. Rather than mass communication, we are currently focusing on outreach through events and experiential.