Here's why Aarey's Energee doesn't taste the same anymore

Once the taste of Mumbai today Energee is almost on the verge of being discontinuedIt has been learnt that Aareys Worli dairy hasnt produced an ounce of the flavoured milk in the last few months And the stock supplied to city currently comes from a Punebased firm to whom Aarey has given rights for production against an annual royalty of Rs 138 crore Hence the missing nostalgic tasteLosing ground An Aarey booth operator selling dairy products similar to the ones sold by the stateowned dairy PicSatej ShindeSpeaking to midday a senior dairy officer said ldquoDue to low supply of milk and defunct machinery all three government run dairies have stopped manufacturing milk products While Worli and Goregaon dairies are partially operational Kurla dairy has stopped operations completely The daily supply of milk which was once over 12 lakh litres a day has reduced to a trickle of 50000 litres This highlights the downfallrdquoZero nostalgia A new bottle of Energee manufactured by the Punebased firm PicBipin KokateHe added that the dairy requires special alcohol negative milk for Energee which is expensive as compared to the regular milk ldquoAt a time when we are finding it difficult to get regular milk forget about procuring the special one Even if we get it machines arent workingrdquoDifficult to break evenKutwal Foods Private Limited the Punebased firm to whom the rights were outsourced to produce and sell the flavoured milk is struggling to break even by selling Energee and other Aarey products claiming lack of support from Aarey booth owners in MumbaiSpeaking to midday Prakash Kutwal chairperson of Kutwal Foods Pvt Ltd said ldquoWe were informed that the state dairy department has around 1801 Aarey booths across Mumbai and another 300 across Maharashtra But after winning the online tender of Rs 138 crore we discovered that only 400 plus booths were operational across Mumbai Surprisingly most of them sell competitors products thus affecting the sale of products like EnergeerdquoHe added that his company hasnt even thought of breaking even as it only sells about 30 to 40 per cent of the total Energee produced despite offering a commission of Rs 3 per bottle to the vendors ldquoAfter deducting all overheads including procurement of alcohol negative milk and delivery we make a profit of just 50 paise per bottlerdquo Kutwal said adding ldquoVendors refuse to sell any other Aarey product claiming less incentives in comparison to the ones offered by the competitors This is a setback as it limits the reach and sale of Aarey productsrdquoUpon inquiry Kutwal told this correspondent that besides procuring the rights to sell Aarey products the company also bagged formulae for various milk products including Energee ldquoWe have been allowed to use the formula under the direct supervision of the Dairy Development officials The officers conduct surprise checks to prevent the misuse of formulae Moreover we are also allowed to fix our own pricing for the Aarey productsrdquoWhen asked whether brand Aarey will survive Kutwal replied positively stating that it wouldnt take more than a month to recapture the market provided booth operators are pulled up and reprimanded for selling dairy products manufactured by other companiesHe also claimed that the previous NCPCongress government ministers who either had their own dairies or were associated with cooperative milk businesses wanted Aarey to die a natural death But the present government wants to ensure that brand Aarey doesnt fade into oblivion and is doing everything possible to revive itLoss making machineSources told midday that despite incurring heavy losses the dairy department purchased an automatic continuous shelve machine for the Energee section by paying 80 per cent of R10 lakh upfrontThe machine was procured from a Gujaratbased company three years agoldquoSince the day of its installation the machine has been lying idle The main machine which was imported from Denmark in 1960s which developed a technical snag recently also remains unused We thought that at least the new machine would help but it conked off on day one itselfrdquo said Vijay Sonawane chairperson Maharashtra Milk Employees UnionPN Kamble union general secretary said ldquoThe company engineers tried everything possible to fix the problem but have failed so far We have discussed the issue with the higher authorities and they will do everything possible to recover the money paid to the companyrdquoWhen questioned about the reason for purchasing the machine without conducting a trial run one of the officers said ldquoWe followed the protocol and the machine conked off during the trial runrdquoWe can make profitWhile the absence of a strategy has made the future of Energee look bleak the union is confident of reviving it ldquoIf the government provides funds and ensures regular supply of alcohol negative milk then we can turn around the loss making dairy into a profitable venture with a single product Currently we procure milk at R22 per litre If we pay extra Rs 4 per litre for fresh alcohol negative milk we can produce five bottles containing 200 ml Energee each With an MRP of Rs 25 the present price we can still make a good profit due to the huge demand for Energee across Mumbairdquo said KambleHowever Kutwal expressed apprehensions over the success story projected by the union ldquoMachinery at Aarey is outdated and a major chunk of its staff is due for retirement In todays competitive market advanced technology and educated consumer market emphasis must be on three areas quality competitive pricing and attractive packaging which Aarey cant live up tordquo he saidExcess staffAnother bone of contention for the workers union is the tag of surplus staff given by the government using which it wants to fuse existing manpower into other departmentsldquoIts been a few years since we stopped recruiting people on general or contractbasis At present our staff strength is 1600 workers across the three dairies and is slowly diminishing Most of us will retire in a few years After operating machines for 25 to 30 years these staffers cant handle nontechnical work Instead of helping us run the dairy the government is tagging us as surplus A protest will be called in the next few weeks against this moverdquo said SonawaneAn insider claimed despite incurring losses due to plummeting dairy output 11 officers were promoted recently ldquoIsnt this funny This is like rubbing salt on the woundsrdquo he said400Number of operational Aarey booths across Mumbai1801Number of Aarey booths across Mumbai on paper1600Staffers working at all the three Aarey dairies