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Since 2009, Groupe Danone, the $18-billion French dairy company, has been developing strategies for India by leveraging on its experience, involving easily affordable dairy products, in Bangladesh.

Danone launched a new Indian business unit dedicated to developing dairy products for lower income. As part of its mission to bring ‘health through food’ to as many people as possible, Danone is setting its sights on India’s ‘base of the pyramid’ consumers – an underserved demographic containing more than half a billion people. The new unit, Danone BOP (Base Of Pyramid) India is charged with developing and marketing products to lower income consumers in smaller towns such as Gurgaon, Faridabad, Panipat, Sonepat and Ambala, before gradually moving to other parts of the country.

In 2011, the launch of Danone BOP was marked by the launch of two new dairy products under the ‘Fundooz’ brand. Fundooz, described as ‘a tasty, healthy and affordable food brand for school-going children’, is being manufactured at Danone’s first manufacturing facility in India at Sonepat, Haryana. To amplify the buzz, Danone India has rolled out innovative branded coolers and branded carts, which will go around the cities to retail out ‘Fundooz’. In 2012, Danone launched Lassi, another dairy product locally adaptated for the Indian market. Priced at Rs 15 for a 165 ml pack, the company has introduced Lassi in sweet, mango and masala variants across Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune.