Mother Dairy, India's third-largest ice cream maker, has chalked out a strategy to expand in the southern states, which account for a fourth of the Rs 2,000-crore domestic market, to sustain its growth rate.

Subhashis Basu, business head of dairy products division, told that Mother Dairy would aggressively expand its footprint in the south, aiming to garner a 20% market share by 2014. "Expansion in southern markets should help us maintain our growth rate of 30% a year across the country in a sustainable manner going forward. We hope our strong local supply chain would help us gain a sizable place in this market."

Mother Dairy, which reported Rs 300 crore sales in year to March 2012, claims a share of around 18% in the Indian ice cream market.

For its expansion in the region, Mother Dairy plans to tie-up with local retail majors and focus on corporates for institutional sales, apart from using its own milk outlets network.

Basu said Mother Dairy was also looking at setting up an ice-cream manufacturing facility in the south. "The ice cream manufacturing facility could come up either in Hyderabad or Bangalore, a call on which would be taken by the year-end."

He refused to divulge further details on the capacities and investments involved in the manufacturing facility.

Having entered the Hyderabad market last month, Mother Dairy is now looking at expanding into cities such as Chennai, Patna and Ahmedabad over the next 12-18 months.