The Hindu has a profile of R.G. Chandramogan, founder of Chennai-based Hatsun Agro Products, best known for it Arun Icecream (launched in the 1970s) and Arokya Milk (1980s) brands.
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While frozen dessert lovers were lapping up whatever came from the stables of Arun, Chandramogan busied himself with another venture — the dairy business. In 1995 he started Arokya milk. “We were procuring milk for our ice creams and so this idea came about. Today Arokya sees an annual turnover of Rs.1,300 crores. We also manufacture butter, milk powder, ghee and curd. We are associated with 3,50,000 farmers and buy milk from 8,000 villages. We operate from nine different factories and our people travel 4,20,000 km to collect and distribute milk,” he adds. Hatsun dairy products are available across the country. Hatsun has its dairy plants in Kanchipuram, Palacode, Salem, Madurai, Belgaum, Honnali.
...Hatsun produces 18 lakh to 20 lakh litres of milk per day. Twelve lakh litres are used up for milk and milk products. Sixty thousand litres are used for ice cream. The remaining is used for ghee and skimmed milk.
...In 2012, Hatsun started yet another ice cream brand, Ibaco. This is the posh cousin of Arun ice cream and is based on the ice cream-by-scoop model. “Arun is a factory finished product and comes in cones, cups and sticks. As for Ibaco, it's the scoop variety. You walk into an Ibaco parlour, choose the flavour and get it dressed with toppings. As of now Ibaco is available in Chennai, Bengaluru and Delhi. By next year I'll be taking it to Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Kolkata,” says Chandramogan.
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