Missing the plot
When French yoghurt maker Danone (post its acrimonious break up with Britannia) started its second innings in India in 2009, it was considered the most innovative dairy player. With products such as smoothies, flavoured yoghurt (all packaged in UHT packs for increased shelf life), as well as Bengal's mishti doi, the yoghurt maker nudged incumbents like Amul and Mother Dairy to strengthen their innovation pipeline.
In an interview with Business Today in 2016, Danone's then head of dairy business in India, Jochen Ebert, had emphasised the company's commitment to the Indian market. Ebert said the biggest opportunity lay in the fact that per capita consumption of yoghurt was just 30 40 litres vis a vis 300 400 litres in most mature markets.
To capitalise on that opportunity, the company had set up its own milk collection infrastructure in Punjab, built its own cold supply chain and invested in a robust innovation pipeline. "Our experience is that the per capita consumption of yoghurt grows slowly for a very long
