The Milk Time range, which includes yoghurts and other fermented dairy products, are being marketed as healthy foods, with a high vitamin and mineral content and containing live bifidobacteria (B.longum), an approach which the company clearly hopes will appeal to Russian consumers.
Dmitry Novikov, head of dairy business development at Nidan, said: "The brand's name - Milk Time - is meant to suggest that the time has come to consume high quality, healthy dairy products. We are sure that the brand will significantly contribute to Nidan's dairy business."
Indeed, Nidan said that it expected volumes of Milk Time to reach 400-500 tons per month, worth around RUR14 million.
While this may not seem like a particularly large figure in a country as large as Russia, Nidan's initial hopes for the brand are relatively parochial. The company, which was a pioneer of yoghurt production in the Siberian region, has set its sights on conquering first and foremost the city of Novosibirsk (where it already accounts for around 25 per cent of the dairy product output), before moving on to other Siberian cities.
The launch of Milk Time coincides with a plant upgrade at the Novosibirsk dairy, said Nidan's executive director Olga Eremeeva. "The start of Milk Time production was part of the company's overall modernisation project which has been underway for the past two years. So far we have invested $15 million on rebuilding our production facilities and purchasing of new technology."
Production at the Siberian dairy has increased by 10 per cent since the launch of the Milk Time range.
As well as dairy products, Nidan produces fruit juice (sold in both Russia and Ukraine) and recently began limited retail operations. The company produces the Champion, Moya Semya (My Family), Kapriz, Tropikana and the vitamin-enriched drink Da (Yes) drinks, and it is perhaps best known as a fruit juice producer, with a market share of 16.8 per cent (rising to more than 45 per cent in Siberia and 64 per cent in Novosibirsk itself.
The group owns two dairy production plants in Novosibirsk, one focused on dairy products such as Milk Time, the other on dried milk powder.
Nidan recently reported first net profits of RUR5.1 million, up from RUR2.2 million a year earlier, helped by a 46.4 per cent rise in revenues to RUR2.78 billion.