DPO expects 7% milk sales growth

The Dairy Farming Promotion Organization (DPO), the producer of Thai-Danish dairy products, expects sales to rise by 7% to 9.05 billion baht this year, thanks to rising milk demand and its wider distribution channel.

Of the total projection, 8.06 billion baht will come from retail milk sales and the remaining 986 million baht from sales to the government’s School Milk project.

Narongrit Wongsuwan, the DPO director-general, said consumers are more health conscious and have shifted to UHT milk that has no additional powders.

Its UHT milk under Thai-Danish or Red Cow brand claims to use 100% fresh cow milk as its major ingredient.

Last year, the Thai UHT milk segment was worth 11.2 billion baht with Thai-Danish brand being the market leader with 45% share and enjoying a 4% growth in the past year.

To achieve its 7% sales growth target, the DPO will continue to use aggressive marketing activities to strengthen its leadership and build product awareness.

“We will continue supporting the development of raw milk quality among dairy farmers and dairy production standards, which will lead to a significant improvement for the entire milk industry. This will bring benefits to consumers and enable us to become the best national cow milk brand in the next 5 years,” said Mr Narongrit.

The DPO will further strengthen its cooperation with major retailers and restaurants, such as McDonald’s, Doi Kham, MaxValu, Villa Market and Golden Place in order to have its Thai-Danish UHT milk on their shelves or as ingredients in the menu served in their restaurants or to do joint promotion campaigns.

It will further expand its distribution channel to make its product reach more target customers. At present, it sells its UHT products through three main channels — traditional trade with 29 distributors nationwide, 8 modern trade networks and 5 international market distributors.

The DPO is interested in entering the frozen product segment such as yoghurt and pasteurised milk in the future, Mr Narongrit said.

As the UHT milk market leader, the Thai-Danish brand launched its new TV commercial campaign, Milk Box, to raise consumer awareness about selecting milk with full natural benefits. The campaign encourages consumers to look for the “No Additonal Powder Milk” symbol.