Heritage Foods is a dairy company that built its business by organising millions of litres of milk from hundreds of thousands of farmers and turning it into branded daily nutrition for Indian households - a model it calls “relationship farming”. Founded in 1992 in Andhra Pradesh with the principle of empowering dairy farmers, it has grown over three decades from a regional milk seller into one of India’s leading integrated dairy companies, now serving 10 million consumers daily across 13 states. The recurring approach is a vertically integrated, farmer-to-consumer supply chain that the company itself says a competitor would need over ₹500 Crores and three to five years to replicate - and it is now using that foundation to shift deliberately from commoditised liquid milk toward higher-margin branded value-added products.
Business segments
Three engines at different stages - a dairy platform that is the core of the company, a small but tightly linked animal-feed business that strengthens the farmer network, and a renewable-energy division that powers the factories - all built on the same integrated supply chain.
1. Dairy and value-added products: the branded nutrition engine
Heritage runs a farm-to-table dairy business that procures raw milk directly from over 300,000 farmers, processes it in its own plants, and sells it as branded liquid milk and a growing portfolio of higher-margin products like curd, paneer and ice cream.
- Milk is bought directly from farmers, not middlemen - the company collects milk from over 300,000 dairy farmers across 9,000-plus villages in nine states, paying them two to three times a month based on fat and solids content, and has never declared a “milk holiday” (a day when procurement stops) in over 30 years.
- Freshness is built into the geography - the federated supply chain is designed so that milk is procured within a 25-kilometre radius, chilled and processed within 100 kilometres of the market, and distributed within a 50-60-kilometre radius, which cuts the distance milk travels and keeps it fresh.
- The product mix is deliberately shifting toward value-added products - liquid milk still made up 56% of net revenue in FY26, but value-added products (VAP) like curd, paneer, ghee and flavoured milk contributed 33% and carry roughly double the margin of liquid milk; curd alone accounts for about 69-70% of all VAP revenue.
- A premium ice-cream bet was bought, not just built - in October 2025 the company acquired a 51% stake in the “Get-A-Way” brand, a premium, high-protein, no-added-sugar ice cream and frozen dessert business that already serves over 8,000 orders daily across 35-plus cities, and opened a new greenfield manufacturing facility near Hyderabad with capacity of about 24 million litres a year.
2. Animal nutrition: the farmer-loyalty engine
Heritage Nutrivet makes the cattle feed and supplements that keep the dairy farmers’ herds productive - a small business in revenue terms that reinforces the parent company’s milk supply chain.
- Feed is sold to the same farmers who supply the milk - the subsidiary serves nearly 0.3 million farmers across nine states, with cattle feed making up 84% of its revenue, fish feed 13% and feed supplements the remaining 3%.
- It turns farmer support into a commercial product - the company provides technical advice, veterinary camps and a digital app called Heritage VET+ for animal management, while also selling over 30 branded feed and supplement products such as “Milk Magic” and “HeritaMin” from two factories in Andhra Pradesh with a combined capacity of 12,000 metric tonnes per month.
3. Renewable energy: the captive-power engine
Heritage generates its own solar and wind power to run its dairy factories, cutting both its electricity bill and its carbon footprint.
- Power is made for the company’s own use - the division has 14.37 MW of installed capacity (8.07 MW of solar and 6.30 MW of wind) spread across five states, and it meets roughly 37-39% of the company’s total electricity needs.
- A small surplus is sold to the grid - the division earned ₹90.29 million from external power sales in FY24, though captive consumption is its primary purpose.
Group structure and partners
Heritage Foods is the listed parent, with three subsidiaries that extend its dairy platform into animal feed, French-style yoghurt and premium ice cream.
- Heritage Nutrivet Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary that manufactures and distributes livestock feed and supplements from two plants in Andhra Pradesh.
- Heritage Novandie Foods Limited, originally a 50:50 joint venture with France’s Andros Group, became a 94.40%-owned subsidiary in June 2025; it makes flavoured yoghurt products under the “Livo” brand for Heritage from a plant in Palghar, Maharashtra.
- Peanutbutter and Jelly Private Limited, owner of the “Get-A-Way” premium ice-cream brand, became a 51%-owned subsidiary in January 2026, with an option for Heritage to buy a further 20% stake after March 2026.
- The company also holds a 43.33% stake in Skil Raigam Power (India) Limited, a dormant associate that had planned to set up a hydro power plant in Arunachal Pradesh.