MILKING A DREAM
ABHINAV SHAH 36 HARSH THAKKAR 41 RAKESH SHARMA 38 ABHISHEK RAJ 37 FOUNDERS, OSAM DAIRY, RANCHI
For years, as trained chartered accountants, Abhinav Shah, Rakesh Sharma and Abhishek Raj held prominent posts in prestigious finance companies. Meeting with high-profile clients, flying cities and digging into profit and loss statements provided them good money. Harsh Thakkar, another friend in Ranchi, was doing equally well with his FMCG business. Yet, the fun was missing and they all felt an overwhelming urge to do something different. And Osam Dairy was born in 2012.
The four friends pooled in Rs 1 crore from their savings, purchased one acre of land in Ranchi’s Ormanjhi village. The chartered accountants in the group discussed the business plan threadbare and Abhinav even took up a month-long course in dairy farming and animal health in Kanpur.
“But life is like the stock market, it throws surprises to unsettle your best plans,” says Abhinav. Forty animals were purchased from Punjab for Rs 35 lakh, but 26 of those died within a month. Yet, the team remained undaunted. In May 2012, they pumped in another Rs 50 lakh—an amount initially kept as fallback fund.
More cows were purchased, this time from Bihar. And doorto-door supplies began, from 300 litres a day in the beginning to 1,000 litres within six months. Osam Dairy’s turnover in the first year was Rs 26 lakh.
A year on, the four decided to set up their own dairy processing plant at a cost of Rs 20 crore. The finances were arranged and their first plant was up and running in May 2015 at Patratu near Ranchi. Soon, they sold off their dairy farm and started procuring milk from 18,000 farmers in 400 villages.
Things have moved smoothly since then. Osam Dairy’s second plant came up at Chandil near Jamshedpur in September 2017. Close to 80,000 litres of milk is produced every day, apart from value-added milk products, which make up 20 per cent of the production. Today, the company has 200 distributors and 7,000 retailers and is eyeing a revenue of Rs 120 crore this financial year. But the friends are raring to go further. “There are many more opportunities to milk,” they say, in unison.
“They have teamed up to deliver a very efficient management system. In terms of quality, Osam products are on par with state dairy federation standards” Mukul Prasad Singh, Assistant Director (Dairy), Department of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Cooperative, Jharkhand