Hyderabad: As the vice chairman and managing director of Hyderabad-based Heritage Foods, one would expect Nara Bhuvaneswari to be at the dairy company’s classy Jubilee Hills headquarters every day, immersed in brainstorming meetings to push up revenues, setting ambitious marketing targets, and so on.
But the wife of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is barely seen there, and is away from the corporate office for about half the days in a month. The family’s Hyderabad residence is just a furlong or so in the same lane, but she cannot be found there too.
“It is because our VC-MD is mostly on the field, either visiting our plants, procurement centres, or walking into the supermarkets etc., where Heritage products are sold, to interact with customers. The feedback she brings back has been the driver for several new initiatives and changes we have incorporated in our company and policy over the years,” Dr M. Sambasiva Rao, whole time director at Heritage, told ThePrint.
He cited the examples of prompt digital payments to farmers every 10 days, fair and transparent procurement with help of milk analysers, instant printed receipts, to initiatives like Heritage’s Vet+ app helping farmers with veterinarian assistance for concerns with their buffaloes and cows, as direct outcomes of Bhuvaneswari’s interactions.
“She has been our principal communicator with milk farmers on one end and consumers on the other end. Needless to say, Heritage’s core mission of offering every home fresh and healthy products while empowering the farmer is set by her,” said Rao, an IAS officer from the 1984-batch Andhra Pradesh cadre, who took voluntary retirement to join Heritage Foods in 2006.
Bhuvaneswari inspects all of Heritage’s 18 plants, spread across nine states, at least once a year, checks about half of 190 chilling centres, and frequently visits the milk collection centres dotting thousands of villages, especially in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Rao added, explaining the reason for her absence from office.
Earlier this month, she was away again for few days but was not at any of these milk centres.
She, accompanied by husband Naidu, was in London, receiving two awards from the Institute of Directors, United Kingdom, in a ceremony held at Mayfair Hall.
As a beaming Naidu looked on, Bhuvaneswari, the steward of Heritage Foods, accepted the Golden Peacock Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance in the national FMCG category. She was also conferred with the ‘Distinguished Fellowship 2025 Award’ for her “exceptional contributions to public service and social impact” through the NTR Memorial Trust.
She is the managing trustee of the trust, named after her legendary father, matinee idol, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) founder and former CM N.T. Rama Rao. The trust has been implementing welfare programmes, such as Sanjeevani free health clinics, health camps, safe drinking water, women empowerment and vocational training programmes.
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‘Bhuvaneswari nurtured Naidu’s baby’
For the forewoman of the Rs 4,000 crore-worth Heritage Foods that employs thousands, Bhuvaneswari, people close to her say, was initially reluctant to take the reins of the company founded by Naidu in 1992.
Naidu, who often praises the P.V. Narasimha Rao-Manmohan Singh era for the economic transformation of the nation, is also a major beneficiary of the 1991 reforms which, among many other areas, also delicenced the dairy sector.
The dairy sector, till then, was in the hands of co-operatives like Amul in Gujarat and Vijaya in Andhra Pradesh.
The idea to set up a dairy company came naturally to Naidu, an MLA from Kuppam in Chittoor, as the district tops in milk production in the Telugu states.
“But the sector was also in crisis at that time. There was milk but not many takers, no payments to milk producers for months. So, the advent of private players including Heritage Foods eased the farmer woes locally in Chittoor,” said Rao, who was the collector of adjacent Nellore district in those early years of the 1990s.
Among several other posts, Rao served as joint secretary in the ministry of commerce from 2002 to 2006.
When the TDP rode to power in Andhra Pradesh in 1994 under NTR, and Naidu became the finance minister in the state cabinet, “he handed over his business brainchild Heritage Foods to his wife Bhuvaneswari” to involve himself full time in politics and public administration.
The company started with an annual turnover of about Rs 4.5 crore in 1993-94, which has crossed Rs 4,000 crore in 2024-25.
Its operations spanning 16 states, Heritage Foods caters to millions of consumers with a range of products like milk, curd, lassi, butter, paneer, cheese, ghee, ice-creams, milkshakes, frozen desserts, sweets, flavoured milk, cold coffees, milk powder, and other value-added dairy products.
Bhuvaneswari, an Arts graduate, joined the company as executive director in 1994 and became its VC-MD in 2002, a designation she continues to hold now.
“At first disinclined, Bhuvaneswari was encouraged and motivated by Naidu. Shedding her inhibitions quickly, she nurtured Heritage, Naidu’s baby, well into the robust company it is now. Heritage could be part of some dining table conversations, with Naidu curious about plans and developments, but the company is now run by Bhuvaneswari and the family’s daughter-in-law Brahmani,” Rao told ThePrint.
‘Brahmani drives innovation’
Brahmani, daughter of actor-turned-politician Nandamuri Balakrishna, is married to Naidu’s son Lokesh, presently the IT and HRD minister of Andhra Pradesh.
Armed with an MBA degree from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Santa Clara University, Brahmani joined Heritage Foods in 2013 and is now its executive director.
In what would have helped her in managing Heritage Foods, Brahmani completed an executive education programme in digital marketing strategies from Kellogg School of Management and also pursued a marketing internship programme at Danone MNC in Paris and Danone Baby Nutrition in Schiphol, Netherlands, while pursuing her MBA studies.
J. Samba Murthy, Chief Operating Officer at Heritage Foods, said the company’s vision is set by Brahmani, while the mission is her mother-in-law’s.
“Brahmani wants us to be the most admired dairy nutrition company in India by 2030. To put in numbers, it is an ambitious goal of taking the company from about 20 lakh litres of milk procurement per day now, to 40 lakh in five years,” said Murthy, who joined Heritage Foods in 2007, after holding various senior positions at Andhra Pradesh Dairy Development Co-operative Federation, National Dairy Development Board and Reliance.
While Bhuvaneswari is in office by 9.30 am whenever she is not travelling, Brahmani walks in earlier, by 8.30 am, after dropping her son at his school. Both remain in office till the evening, all five days, following a strict work schedule, said Rao.
“Brahmani is focused on R&D, strategic resource allocation, digital transformation and business development, while capturing trends and marketing initiatives. She also drives innovation, like launching apps, and has brought in a total digital culture at Heritage Foods,” he added.
While the men of the household spend their time in the political sphere, the two women are leading the family business to greater heights.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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