Milky Mist’s Rise from Small Beginnings to IPO Plans as Turnover Crosses Rs 2300 Crore

After about two years, I was back at the Milky Mist plant in Perundurai yesterday. By now I had grown used to spotting new changes and improvements with every visit.

But this time felt special. As I stepped into the campus and was walking towards the office of Sathish Kumar, founder of Milky Mist, I saw him coming towards me with his son Shanjay.

Sathish Kumar, founder of Milky Mist, continues to display the same childlike enthusiasm, energy, and hunger for growth that he showed in his early entrepreneurial years (Photos: Special Arrangement)

They were heading out on an inspection round, and I happened to bump into them. Sathish stopped for a moment, smiled, and introduced me to his son as the first person who had written their story.

That simple gesture brought back memories of my very first meeting with him nearly a decade ago, when Milky Mist was still in its early stages. It was for an interview for The Weekend Leader and the story was published on January 19, 2015.

Back then, they had a small unit, and I remember climbing a steel staircase to reach his cabin. We sat in his office and he told me how he had built the business step by step, starting with selling milk and slowly adding new products. The story came out raw and straight from the heart.

Sathish shared his whole journey with me, and I gave the usual treatment to those small-town entrepreneurs who were still not under the glare of Forbes, Fortune, or the elite English media. That story went viral and even today I see social media posts about him picking up details from my 2015 article.

Sathish Kumar’s journey goes back to the early 1980s when his father and uncle were running a small power loom unit. That business did not last long and had to be shut down in three years. They then started a milk business.

They bought milk from local vendors, chilled it, and sent nearly 3,000 litres a day to Bangalore in cans. That too did not succeed. His uncle moved away in 1990, and by 1992 the business had closed down.

At that point, Sathish, just 16 years old, dropped out of school and stepped in. He had noticed that one of their Bangalore buyers was converting milk into paneer and selling it to hotels. Sathish decided to try the same.

Sathish Kumar’s journey began with 10 kilos of paneer, which he sold in Bangalore

With no internet to guide him, he learnt by experimenting. He boiled milk, added vinegar, and refined the process until he got the right taste and texture. In 1993, he carried his first 10 kilos of paneer in a bag to Bangalore. Soon he was delivering 50 to 100 kilos a day to hotels.

By 1995 they stopped supplying liquid milk and focused fully on paneer. In 1997 they entered retail in Chennai, Bangalore, and Coimbatore. In 2010 they came up with the brand Milky Mist and launched their first television commercial. From then on, the company grew rapidly.

When I visited them in 2015, Milky Mist was operating from a cramped unit in a different location. Vehicles were parked outside and most of the work was done manually. Their turnover at that time was about Rs 120 crore. Today, it has crossed Rs 2,300 crore.

The range of products in their catalogue today is astonishing. From ice cream to dark chocolates, wafer chocolates, butter, cheese, curd, fruit yogurt, ghee, milkshakes, and even ready-to-cook products like pizzas and desserts - they seem to have their hands everywhere.

The ice cream SKUs alone are astounding and could be giving clear jitters to the established players in the market. Milky Mist is breathing down the necks of leading ice cream brands with its rapidly expanding product line.

Looking at the Milky Mist Asal range that includes idli and dosa batter, wheat chapati, idiyappam pathiri podi, and vermicelli payasam mix, I asked Sathish about it. He revealed that they had acquired a company in this space. That company had a turnover of about Rs 20 crore when they acquired it, and under Milky Mist it has already grown into a vertical crossing Rs 100 crore.

And now, they are preparing for the next leap forward. Milky Mist is set to go for an IPO, a move that will take this home-grown dairy brand into an entirely new league.

“I am a guerrilla,” Sathish laughed, describing his approach to business. He said he is always on the lookout for gaps in the market that he can fill, always scanning for opportunities that others have missed.

Sathish pointed to the computer screen on his desk that allows him to keep track of the entire plant from his office. Every section of the plant is automated. Robots were even doing the packing. “The main purpose is hygiene and efficiency,” he told me. “I want the unit to run 24 hours and that is not possible with only human resources.”

He asked me how I found the changes since my last visit. I told him they were massive. Everything had changed except Sathish himself. He is still the same person I first met, with the same childlike enthusiasm, the same energy, and the same drive and hunger for growth and expansion. He has also retained his rural charm and simplicity.

The author, Vinoj Kumar, with Sathish Kumar

But there is one change I did notice. Over the years, there has been an extra warmth in our relationship. Before calling me, he left me waiting not in the reception but in the boardroom.

He walked in between meetings to ask if I was comfortable, if I had other appointments, or if I needed anything. During our long chat he would leave me in his cabin to attend quick meetings and return again. That kind of familiarity and trust is something he may not have shown when we first met.

Yes, Sathish has changed. Not in spirit or vision, but in the warmth of friendship. And Milky Mist has changed too, from a small cramped unit to one of the most advanced fully automated dairy plants in the country. - ©TWL

The author, P C Vinoj Kumar, is the Editor of The Weekend Leader