Haleeb Foods in business revamp to compete with global players

Plans to initiate partnerships to enhance product range

LAHORE: In a bid to compete with global food giants, Haleeb Foods is engaged in efforts to reposition the company by focusing primarily on partnerships and modernisation.

The company plans to initiate partnerships with European research and innovation centres to safeguard its future. The Pakistan-based food and beverages company is also partnering with local farmers and research institutes to streamline and enhance its product range.

The company had previously engaged with a couple of European food companies to diversify its portfolio. With the presence of two multinationals and possible acquisition of Fauji Foods by China-based Yili industrial group, Haleeb Foods is working to strengthen its research and development segment in order to compete with multinational food giants.

“It is important to understand how Haleeb Foods positions itself when multinationals are developing in the marketplace,” Haleeb Foods CEO Memosh Khawaja told The Express Tribune.

“We are not a multinational giant; instead we call ourselves a local agile company with a mind-set of multinationals,” said Khawaja.

The company has just initiated efforts to modernise its entire setup as the management believes one cannot grow with an old mind-set in today’s world. “We were an old mind-set company previously relying on a single product.” That mind-set failed to take the company forward, the CEO added. He was of the view that if the company was losing its share in the market, then it needed to be turned around.

The new management has introduced four new products in a span of six months and a lot more is in the pipeline. Haleeb Foods is looking to diversify in segments other than dairy, ranging from juices to water and allied products.



But the company intends not to launch a similar product - which has already flooded the markets - until it achieves a high degree of differentiation. “For the last six months, we have been strengthening our sales infrastructure network. We have developed a speedy culture, which is our strength. “It took us only two months to launch a product by completing all requirements, multinationals cannot do such things as they have to take certain approvals,” Khawaja remarked.

According to the Haleeb Foods’ official, the company has cleared all its debts, which the old management had taken to change fortunes of the company. “We have cleared all debts and are now reinvesting our profits for product diversification.”

But despite the focus of coming out of a single product mind-set, its flagship product Haleeb milk is likely to remain a key product, which will take the business forward.



“We believe that we are pioneers and have a great knowledge of the milk market, so we have the right to come back and give back our country and economy its right share,” Khawaja added.

According to him, the packaged milk industry in the past few years has taken a hit due to image concerns, but now it is reviving. However, in this process, the share of packaged milk has dropped and is currently ranging between 3-5%.

“There is positivity in the market now, especially after Punjab has announced a ban on loose milk and conducted regular inspection of loose milk quality. In the next five years, we expect the percentage of packaged milk will double.”

The company, which once managed to gain 54% market share in the packaged milk category, which later declined over the years, now has around 9% market share, according to the CEO.

“We are still the third largest company when it comes to packaged milk and we are gearing up to enhance our infrastructure strength in milk and juices segments as both have a lot of room.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 13^th, 2018.

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