Britannia enters into joint venture with French cheese maker Bel

To accelerate the development of the nascent cheese market in India

Britannia Industries and Bel, the renowned French cheese maker, have entered into a joint venture (JV) to offer Indian consumers a world-class range of nutritious, delicious and accessible cheese products. Bel shall acquire 49% stake in Britannia’s wholly owned subsidiary BDPL (Britannia Dairy Private Limited).

The entity thereafter shall be renamed as ‘Britannia Bel Foods Private Limited’. The cheese products will be produced in the JV’s new, state-of-the-art-facility at Ranjangaon, Maharashtra. The facility is backward-integrated to collect milk from local farmers in the region.

The products will be co-branded using the trademarks “Britannia” and “The Laughing Cow” and will be introduced in innovative formats, to ride on the fast-growing cheese category in the country. Abhishek Sinha, Chief Business Officer, Dairy business, Britannia is named the CEO of the Joint Venture.

Commenting on the Joint Venture, Varun Berry, Executive Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Britannia Industries said, “This JV will help the milk farmers of Maharashtra gain consistent and greater market access through our yield-optimised, milk collection initiative that has grown significantly over the last 3 years. Cheese is an under-penetrated category and this partnership will help expand the nascent but fast growing cheese category by delivering innovative products and being a leader in fulfilling evolving consumer needs. This JV is also key to Britannia’s vision to be a responsible, total foods company”.