After exiting the Indian market twice, Danone, the French yogurt maker, is back again determined to succeed in India’s dairy consumption opportunity. This time round, the company’s investment arm, Danone Manifesto Ventures, acquired a stake in Mumbai-based Drums Food International that manufactures the Greek yogurt brand Epigamia.
Analysts say that the reasons Danone didn’t succeed in India the first two times is due to:
- pricing its yogurt at a cost that was much higher than its competitors
- owning its distribution and supply chain, as it does globally, which didn’t work in India. In order to reach all parts of the country, competitors leverage a network of distributors. Danone’s yogurt was available largely in 50,000 retail outlets, while Amul and Go, its peers in the industry, sell in over five million stores in India
- India is a liquid milk market, and in the value-add dairy products category only traditional products such as ‘paneer‘ (soft fresh cheese), processed cheese, lassi (sweet buttermilk) and ‘chaash‘ (salted or spiced buttermilk) have done well.
(Though Danone exited the dairy business in India, it continued its nutrition portfolio with its products such as Protinex.)
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
