The company which has about 4,000 cows now hopes to bring in 10,000 more in the coming months, a senior official has said.
Baladna CEO John Joseph Dore told Gulf Times at the company's pavilion at the Made in Qatar exhibition that with the arrival of the next batches of cows, a four-fold rise is expected in the company's overall supply of milk in Qatar.
"At the moment we are daily supplying close to 70 tonnes of milk including both the full fat and low fat varieties." The company also has plans to produce skimmed milk , he said.
Unlike the first batch of 4000 cows which were flown in by Qatar Airways last July, the next batches which are much larger would be arriving in ships, said Dore.
Currently the second phase of the expansion of Baladna factory is going on and with the arrival of more machinery in coming months, more milk could be supplied to the customers, said Dore.
He also informed that Baladna would also supply more varieties of yogurt, flavoured milk and butter milk in coming months as there is a steady and strong demand for all these items in the local market.
The CEO of the fastest growing dairy company in Qatar is also hopeful that they would be able to launch more value added products in future.
Dore, a veteran of the dairy industry said the installation of more advanced machinery is underway at the plant and Baladna's rotary facilities are perhaps not only the best of its kind in the whole of the Middle East but also the largest.
The local brand has been receiving remarkably good attention in the domestic market and participation in an expo like Made in Qatar would certainly enhance its visibility and also would help it familiarise with more sections among the country's residents. "We are so happy that in such a short time, we have emerged as one of the best known brands not only in Qatar but in the entire Gulf region also," said Dore.
The CEO said the facilities being put in place at the plant could perhaps be compared with the best in the world.
Baladna, a subsidiary of a well-diversified Qatari firm, has highly specialised cowsheds that ensure comfortable conditions for the cattle.
Spread over more than 700,000 square metres, the company's farm also houses more than 5,000 goats.
IPO next year
Baladna is planning an initial public offer of its shares (IPO) to raise funds and bring in strategic investors, sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters. The privately-owned firm has chosen QNB Capital, the investment banking arm of Qatar National Bank, to arrange the IPO for the first half of 2018, said the sources.
