Amul aims revenue to increase by 20% in 2019-20

The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which sells milk and milk products under the Amul brand, is eyeing to garner a business turnover of Rs 50,000 crore by 2020-21.

Amul is aiming to establish itself as the largest dairy organisation in the world. Currently, it is the ninth-largest dairy organisation globally.

The GCMMF has posted a sales turnover of Rs 33,150 crore for the financial year 2018-19, which is 13% higher than the previous financial year.

Ramsinh Parmar, Chairman of GCMMF, said, “In the past nine years, milk procurement by GCMMF member milk cooperatives witnessed an increase of 153 per cent. This enormous growth was a result of the high milk procurement price paid to our farmer-members which has increased by 105 per cent in this period.”

“The time was ripe for the second white revolution given that the demand for milk in India is seen going up to 65 crore litres per day in 2050-51 from the current level of 48 crore litres per day, given urbanisation and population growth estimates. This means that India's milk production needs to grow at around 3.2 per cent CAGR (compound annual growth rate) for the next 40 years. This can be possible only when dairy farmers are given stable and remunerative prices through proper market linkage,” he added.

Amul, Asia’s largest dairy brand, will be the prime sponsor of the Afghanistan cricket team for the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup.

Throughout the World Cup from May 30 to July 14, Amul's logo will be appearing on the leading arm of Afghanistan team’s playing jerseys as well as on the training kits.

Dr. RS Sodhi, Managing Director, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF), said, “We are excited about being associated with Afghanistan Cricket for the first time and Amul is hopeful that this team, rated as the fastest growing team in International cricket, will deliver an outstanding performance in the World Cup.” 

“Amul and Afghanistan share an old association. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, popularly known as Frontier Gandhi had visited Amul in 1969 and had met Dr V. Kurien and studied the activities of our dairy cooperative. Subsequently, several delegations of women milk producers from Afghanistan have visited Amul,” he added.

Asadullah Khan, CEO of Afghanistan Cricket Board, stated, “This is a big moment for Afghanistan cricket and we are extremely happy that Amul will sponsor us for the World Cup. This is the first time we will play in the World Cup as a full member and the preparations are good. We hope to do well.”

The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd, which markets Amul milk and dairy products, has posted a 13% rise in turnover to Rs 33,150 crore in the year ended March 31. 

GCMMF had reported a turnover of Rs 29,225 crore in 2017-18. This means that the turnover of Amul group exceeded Rs 45,000 crore, which is also 13% higher than last year. 

The Amul Federation has been achieving a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 17.5% for the past nine years because of higher milk procurement, continuous expansion in markets, launching of new products and adding new milk processing capacities across India.

RS Sodhi, Managing Director of Amul, said, “We have achieved volume sales growth in all product categories. Pouch milk, which is the highest turnover product, has shown good growth in almost all the markets.” 

Ramsinh P Parmar, Chairman, Amul Federation, stated, “Based on estimated growth in market demand for Amul products and our future marketing efforts, we anticipate at least 20 per cent CAGR growth in the business of Amul Federation during the next five years.”

Jethabhai Bharwad, Vice Chairman of Amul Federation, added,  “The member unions of Amul plan to enhance its milk processing capacity from the current level of 350 lakh litres per day to 380—400 lakh litres per day in the next two years.”

Gujarat based dairy major Amul has sent a legal notice to Google India, alleging that the technology giant has ‘benefited’ from Google Search ad campaigns which are being misused to scam individuals in the name of Amul.

“A series of fake B2B campaigns regarding Amul parlours and distributors have started through fake websites using Google Search ads since September 2018,” said the legal notice sent by Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) that owns Amul.

The notice also read, “These miscreants have been running paid ads on Google search engines against keywords such as Amul franchisee, Amul parlour, and Amul distributor among many others.”

The notice alleges that these individuals and organisations have malicious intents of exploiting individuals across India with fake promises of business opportunities with Amul. Google India is “accountable for misuse of their platform and earning revenues through the ads”, the notice said.

According to the notice, once an individual wooed by the offer to explore business opportunities with Amul, which sells packaged milk, butter, ice-cream and cheese opens the ‘fake’ websites, he/she is required to fill a form. After that, they receive calls from unknown numbers prompting them to pay registration fees ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 5 lakh in various bank accounts. “Post receipt of the payment, the interested individuals stop receiving all forms of communication from these miscreants,” the notice added.

अमूल डेयरी, जिसे केरा जिला सहकारी दूध उत्पादक संघ लिमिटेड (केडीसीएमपीयूएल) भी कहा जाता है, संयुक्त राज्य अमेरिका में अपना पहला डेयरी खरीदने के लिए तैयार है। अमूल, जो विदेशी भूमि पर डेयरी संयंत्र शुरू करने के लिए भारत में पहला डेयरी संघ होगा, विस्कॉन्सिन, अमेरिका में अपना विनिर्माण संयंत्र स्थापित करेगा।

कंपनी गुजरात सहकारी दूध विपणन संघ (गुजरात के सभी जिला डेयरी यूनियनों का शीर्ष निकाय है, जो ब्रांड अमूल का विपणन करती है) और अमेरिका में एक स्थानीय भागीदार के साथ त्रिपक्षीय समझौते में प्रवेश कर चुकी है। इस समझौते के माध्यम से, अमूल अपस्टेट न्यूयॉर्क में स्थित वाटरलू गांव में तीन डेयरी उत्पादों, अर्थात् पनीर, घी और श्रृखंड का निर्माण कर सकते हैं।

विस्कॉन्सिन कुल पनीर उत्पादन का लगभग 27% है और अमेरिका में पनीर का शीर्ष उत्पादक है।

एक शीर्ष कंपनी के अधिकारी ने कहा, "हम अपने अमेरिकी परिचालनों का विस्तार करने के विकल्पों को देख रहे हैं ताकि हम बाजार को बेहतर तरीके से सेवा दे सकें। वर्तमान में, वाटरलू सुविधा से, हम पूर्वी तट पर सबसे अच्छी सेवा कर सकते हैं। सबसे अच्छा विकल्प है कि हम इसे शुरू करें, वहां अपने परिचालन हैं।"

अमूल डेयरी के अध्यक्ष रामसिंह परमार ने कहा, "अधिग्रहण के लिए एक डेयरी संयंत्र के लिए स्काउट करने के लिए पहले से ही अमेरिका में निदेशक, वापसी के बाद, हम यह समझने की स्थिति में होंगे कि अधिग्रहण के साथ आगे कैसे बढ़ना है।"

वर्तमान में, अमेरिकी बाजार में अमूल की कुल बिक्री लगभग 60 करोड़ रुपये है, जिसमें डेयरी उत्पादों का समावेश है, जो स्थानीय रूप से निर्मित होते हैं और भारत से निर्यात किए जाते हैं। 

Amul Dairy, also known as the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers Union Limited (KDCMPUL), is all set to buy its first dairy in the United States. Amul, which will be the first dairy union in India to start a dairy plant on foreign land, will set up its manufacturing plant in Wisconsin, US.

The company has entered into a tripartite agreement with the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (the apex body of all district dairy unions of Gujarat that markets brand Amul) and a local partner in the US. Through this agreement, Amul can manufacture three dairy products, namely paneer, ghee and shrikhand, in Waterloo village located in upstate New York.

Wisconsin accounts for almost 27% of total cheese production and is the top producer of cheese in America.

A top company official said, "We are looking at options to expand our US operations so that we can service the market there better. Presently, from the Waterloo facility, we can at best service the eastern coast. The best option is to start our own operations there."

Ramsinh Parmar, Chairman of Amul Dairy, said, "Once the directors, who are already in the US to scout for a dairy plant for acquisition, return, we will be at a position to understand how to go ahead with the acquisition."

Presently, Amul’s total sales are at almost Rs 60 crore in the US market including dairy products that are locally manufactured there and those exported from India.

With domestic brands like Amul, Parle, Big Bazaar and Dabur featuring in the top ten list of India's most popular brands, a Nikkei BP-Market Xcel Data Matrix survey revealed that domestic brands are liked and revered by Indian consumers at par with international brands like Samsung and Coca-Cola.

According to the Brand Asia Survey 2017, Samsung has emerged as the most popular brand in terms of consumer brand relationship, followed by food and drinks brand Amul and mobile brand Nokia.

Ashwani Arora, Senior VP Research, Director on Board, Market Xcel said, "Amul, the food and drinks brand, has scored second place this year beating Coca-Cola (rank 10) and Pepsi (rank 15).”

He added, "Parle -- a brand from the pre independence era -- goes on to prove the love people have for it still. It has ranked fifth this year and its win is solely dedicated to the wide variety of its biscuits which has satiated consumer palettes since ages," said Arora.

"Hence, Indian brands are equally liked and revered by consumers," he added.

Arora further said, Nokia which is loved brand by Indians has a high past equity and connect. The brand was once a household name in India. The relaunch of the brand in India has refurbished the emotional connect with consumers as is evident in the survey," Samsung mobiles and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) company Parle ranked fourth and fifth in terms of the most popular brands in India.

The survey also revealed that Future Group-owned retail business Big Bazaar was the only retail brand to mark a place in the top 10 popular brands at rank six.

According to Arora, the kirana shops are unable to provide the choice, ambience, service and discounts which Big Bazaar offers leading to its popularity among customers. The (Big Bazaar) brand has many firsts to its credit. The only national competitor to the brand being Reliance Retail.

The rest of the brands in the top ten category included toothpaste brand Colgate, messaging platform WhatsApp, FMCG brand Dabur and beverages company Coca-Cola.

The top 10 brands featured in the survey are a mix of technology, FMCG and retail brands.

Another interesting insight was that the brands from the automotive sphere had the least representation even among the top 20 brands during the year's survey.

"Some of the reasons attributed to (automotive) category's low affinity include low penetration, high involving, and family product more than a personal category," Arora said.

"Also the choice is vested with few members in a family. The category has low mental salience with the womenfolk."

In 13 countries across Asia, a total of 200 brands were surveyed with a mix of national and international brands.

Gujrat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (Amul) has decided to invest about Rs 250 crore in the dairy sector of Odisha.

Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Limited's Managing Director RS Sodhi said “currently there was a supply gap of 30 lakh litres of milk per day in Odisha. State was the second biggest market for Amul in the country”.

Mayank Jalan, MD of Keventer Agro Ltd, during his meeting with the Odisha delegation said “their intent to set up a unit for maize processing, promote banana cultivation and set up a food processing laboratory in the state.”

In the seminar, the representative of the TATA Global Beverages Ltd said that it had shortlisted Odisha as the potential location for setting up of a tea packaging unit over 20 acres of land with an investment of 40 crore and employment to 400 people.

The state MSME Minister Prafulla Samal, who was present in the seminar, had said food processing was a focus sector for the state. In order to promote the industry, Odisha had chalked out food processing policy, developed mega food parks at Deras and Rayagada and single window facilitation for investors.

Odisha's Additional Chief Secretary, MSME, L N Gupta said that with 10 agro climatic zones and 480 km long coastline coupled with surplus production of cereals, rice and vegetables, the state offered an enormous opportunity for food processing industry.

Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF), which sells its products under the Amul brand has decided to cut the prices of its skimmed milk products (SMPs) by 6-7 per cent across all varieties. This, according to experts, is the result of the sharp decline in demand during the ongoing lean season, coupled with a sharp increase in supply.

This decision has accounted for a decrease of the prices by about Rs 10 per kg making the the current prices of SMPs to be around Rs 220 per kg.

"We have cut maximum retail price (MRP) of skimmed milk powder by six-seven per cent across all varieties recently because of weak demand from consumers. SMP prices are likely to remain subdued in coming months due to the commencement of new milk supply season," said R S Sodhi, managing director, GCMMF.

The price decline, however, is unlikely to impact farmers’ realisations for the supply of liquid milk as dairy companies are preparing to absorb a squeeze in margins from lower prices. "Dairy companies in Maharashtra have posted lower profit margins for June quarter due to increase in milk procurement prices. Milk prices, however, are unlikely to decline because of a cut in SMP prices," said Shirish Upadhyay, senior vice-president (strategic planning), Parag Milk Foods Ltd, the producer of Gowardhan brand milk and cheese.

An Edelweiss Securities report said that the average milk procurement price for Prabhat Dairy stood at Rs 27.1 for the April–June quarter of 2017, up by five per cent from the corresponding quarter last year and down by around five per cent from the previous sequential quarter.

However, dairy producers are having a hard time on the exports as the prices prevailing in the international markets are 20 per cent less than the domestic market.

The dairy industry has immense potential in West Bengal as both raw material and demand are present and Amul has already firmed up a Rs 200 crore new processing plant in the state.

"In West Bengal dairy is growing at just two to three per cent against national average of five per cent, despite the fact that the state has everything from raw material to demand," R S Sodhi, Managing Director of GCMMF, owner of Amul brand told PTI.

What is required is organising dairy farmers and procurement of milk processes and Amul is keen in hand holding the state government in offering knowhow and technical support to increase yeild, he said.

The state produces five million tonne of raw milk against a demand of 10-12 million tonne.

Amul has already firmed up to set up a centralised milk processing plant on a 17 acre plot at Sankrail food park in Howrah from West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation.

"We will have the plant ready in the next one year," Sodhi said.

The proposed plant will manufacture UHD milk, yoghurt and ghee, besides normal milk.

Amul in a tieup has set up a 200 tpd cattle feed plant meant for farmers in Amul's fold and also for selling in the market.

Meanwhile, Indian Dairy Association Chairman (east) R Chattopadyay said an international dairy conference would be held in Bengal in 2019 to bring the state in focus.

Dairy brand, Amul has reduced prices of cottage cheese, dairy whitener and baby food, increased the price of ghee and left cheese, butter and ice cream unchanged after the roll-out of Goods and Services Tax regime on Saturday.

Producers of pickles, jam, tomato ketchup, however, complained that GST had raised the taxation level and said sales had slumped after the onset of the new regime, while sellers of branded rice and wheat flour said their distributors had issues with the new system.

RS Sodhi, Managing Director, Amul said that implementation of GST had been normal.

He said, "We don’t expect any major change in revenue with implementation of GST. The consumer gets to gain. As there was substantial increase in tax for ghee we have increased prices by Rs 25-30 a kg. Cheese, butter and ice cream prices have not been changed as increase was marginal. However, we reduced prices of milk products which came under a lower slab by 5% like dairy whitener, paneer, baby food and cream."

Nitin Seth, MD, GD Foods, the maker of Tops brand of food products, said, "There was a slump in demand on the first day with modern retail stores -Kendriya Bhandar, Easy Day and others not doing the billing as systems were being updated for GST, and they were only selling essential commodities with manual billing. Everyone is trying to understand how things will work. We have not increased retail prices yet."

Rakesh Jain of Rajdhani Group said that they have increased wheat flour (atta) prices by 5%.

He said, "Implementation is a challenge as 90% of bulk packing of 50 kg is being sold unbranded. No one (distributor or retailer) is buying as of now. The other challenge is that retailers have not registered for GST."

Priyanka Mittal, Director, KRBL, which owns India Gate basmati, said that the company was GST ready.

She said, "The shocker is distributors have not placed orders as they expect GST on branded basmati to be reversed from 5% to zero."

Bombay HC asks Amul to stop telecasting misleading TV advertisement

FMCG giant, Hindustan Unilever (HUL) won a lawsuit it filed in the Bombay High Court against Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which markets Amul ice cream. The Bombay High Court has ordered Amul to stop telecasting its television advertisement with immediate effect.

The court found the advertisement disparaging the 'Frozen Desserts' category. Court further declined GCMMF's request to grant any stay on the order, HUL said.

In March, Hindustan Unilever Ltd moved the HC with a plea for damages worth Rs 10 crore and to stop the telecast of misleading Amul commercial. HUL’s contention was that one of the ads asks viewers not to eat products that contain vanaspati oil, thus disparaging its Kwality Wall’s Frozen Desserts which contains vegetable oil.

Sudhir Sitapati , Executive Director-resfreshments, HUL, said, "We are pleased that the Bombay HC while injuncting Amul’s advertisement has agreed with HUL’s contention that Amul’s advertisement is false, misleading consumers and disparages Frozen Desserts. Kwality Walls products are made with milk/milk solids and do not contain vanaspati. In fact, our Frozen Dessert products use milk without cholesterol to offer healthy and exciting choices to consumers."

Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF), which markets the popular Amul brand of milk and dairy products, has successfully quadrupled the income of its dairy farmers by four times in last seven years.

During the last seven years, Amul’s milk procurement prices to its farmer-members more than doubled from Rs. 24.30 per litre for buffalo milk (Rs. 337 per kg fat) in 2009-10 to Rs. 49 per litre (Rs. 680 per kg fat) in 2016-17. Since the cooperative’s total milk procurement also doubled during this period, from 90.9 lakh litres per day to 176.5 lakh litres per day, this effectively increased the income of its dairy farmers, four-fold in the last seven years.

Results of the apex body of dairy cooperatives in Gujarat were declared on 15thJune 2017, in the 43rd Annual General Meeting of GCMMF.

GCMMF aims to achieve a business turnover of Rs. 50000 crore and become the largest FMCG organization in India by 2020-21. In the long-term, Amul claims to establish itself as the largest dairy organization in the world, rising up from its current ranking of thirteenth largest dairy organization to number one.

Jethabhai Patel, Chairman, GCMMF, said, "During the last seven years, our milk procurement has witnessed a phenomenal increase of 96%. This enormous growth was a result of the high milk procurement price paid to our farmer-members which has increased by 102% in this period. This highly remunerative price has helped us retain the farmers’ interest in milk production. Better returns from dairying have motivated them to enhance their investments in increasing milk production."

He added, "The drive towards digital and cashless payments, which received a huge boost thanks to Government of India’s demonetization initiative, has brought about significant benefits to our farmers in rural Gujarat. We have actively helped our farmer-members to open bank accounts and have linked an additional 13 lakh farmers’ bank accounts to our system. Now, milk payments are cashless and directly transferred into their bank accounts."

Jethabhai Bharwad, Vice-Chairman, GCMMF, said, "Our digitalization drive has brought in complete transparency in payment to milk producer members. Farmer-members are aware of the exact amount due to them and the rationale behind the same. Payments going directly into their bank accounts also helps inculcate the savings habit in them. The need for an active bank account has brought large number of the Amul family farmer households directly into the formal banking network.Automated Milk Collection Systems installed at village dairy cooperative societieshave now been linked through common online software applications. This helps to further enhance transparency among producer members using digital technology."

R S Sodhi, Managing Director, GCMMF, said, "Amul’s success has been driven by its ‘3E’mantra – Rapid expansion in milk procurement, rapid expansion in manufacturing facilities and rapid expansion in marketing & distribution network. "

The Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union, the owners of Amul, is setting up a Rs 250 crore processing plant in West Bengal, and is expanding operations in the state’s districts and also foraying into Bihar and Assam, officials said.

R. Chattopadhyay, Officer on Special Duty, Amul Dairy, Kolkata, said, “We are expanding milk procurement operations in districts like Malda, Darjeeling, Howrah and East Midnapore in Bengal. This apart, we are foraying into milk procurement in Bihar and both procurement and processing in Assam."

According to Dipak Chakrabarty, Officer on Special Duty, the processing plant with a capacity of one lakh litres per day (LLPD) is under construction in Guwahati.

Chakrabarty said, “Milk collection will be 15,000 to 20,000 litres per day. We are targeting for first 90 days an initial output of 50,000 litres per day. Our target is one lakh litres per day."

He said, "In Bihar, the collection target is 30,000 to 40,000 litres per day."

As for Bengal, a processing plant of 10 LLPD capacity, expandable up to 15 LLPD, with a total outlay of about Rs 250 crore, is being set up at Food Park, Sankrail, over 16.7 acres of land purchased from the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC), the officials said.

Chattopadhyay said, “Products like milk, fermented products, ice cream, UHT milk, white butter and ghee would be manufactured in this plant, which should be completed by 2018."

The brand will also launch its fresh paneer in Bengal before the Durga Puja.

Chakrabarty added, “The business turnover under the Kolkata operation touched Rs 1,650 crore by March 2017. We are targeting Rs 1,900 crore by March 2018.

Amul is a bigger brand than Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) Limited managing director R S Sodhi said.

Sodhi, who announceed the official sponsorship of the New Zealand cricket team, said that Amul, a brand wholly owned by GCMMF, is also sold by 18,000 village cooperative societies outside the formal distribution channel in Gujarat.

Sodhi also added, "If that is taken is taken into account, the sales turnover of Amul is over Rs 38,000 crore, including the GCMMF revenue of Rs 27,000 crore."

In its latest initiative Amul is planning to expand its chocolate production capacity by five times involving a cost of Rs 150 crore, he said.

GCMMF is also coming up with five new integrated plants in Gujarat, Mumbai, Pune and West Bengal, Sodhi said adding that the annual capital expenditure was Rs 800 crore.

Sodhi said there were also plans to enter the markets of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Setting a target of Rs 50,000 crore sales by 2021, Sodhi said that milk production volumes would be increased by 14 per cent yearly with a price increase of six to seven per cent.

The Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) that markets dairy products under brand Amul is seriously exploring possibility of buying fresh vegetables and fruits directly from farmers in the villages from where it procures milk on daily basis.

Apart from milk, homegrown dairy giant Amul will now procure and sell fruits and vegetables at their outlets.

For this, GCMMF has roped in the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) to carry out technical evaluation of the project.

To begin with, Amul is looking to start selling vegetables and fruits in Ahmedabad where it runs over 200 parlours.

R S Sodhi, Managing Director, GCMMF, said, "On January 26, we had signed a MoU with Gujarat government to help farmers get better price for their agri produce."

Amul may replicate the Delhi model of Safal that is engaged in retailing of fresh fruits and vegetables along with value-added products, he said.

The proposal came up for discussion during the recent board meeting of GCMMF in which chairman of all the 17 district dairy unions of Gujarat who are member unions of the federation had participated at Palanpur.

Jetha Patel, Chairman, GCMMF, said, "We are studying the procedure on how to start procurement and marketing of different vegetables including tomatoes, cauliflowers, brinjals, onions among others."

He added, "If we succeed in our study, the vegetables will be marketed under brand Amul and will be procured by our member unions.

This will not only benefit the vegetable producers but also benefit consumers as the role played by middlemen will get eliminated. Producers dealing in horticulture will get better price while consumers will get the agri produce at affordable price with trusted brand name of Amul."

Top domestic dairy brands, Amul and Mother Dairy expect milk and milk product prices to remain stable this summer owing to adequate supplies.

Over the next couple of weeks, milk procurement is seen increasing in south India, aided by an expected normal rainfall this year.

Milk prices were increased by Rs 2 a litre in February and March over concerns of low stocks and higher compensation to farmers.

RS Sodhi, managing director of Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd, which markets its products under the ‘Amul’ brand said, “Milk prices will remain stable this summer as the price increase has been done by all companies till March.”

Sandeep Ghosh, Business Head- milk, Mother Dairy, said, “At the onset of summer, we are keeping a close watch on the milk prices. As of now, we don’t foresee any major change in the near future.”

For the past three months, prices of skimmed milk powder have remained stable at Rs 240-250 per kg. In summer, when milk production drops, the dairy sector is compelled to manufacture liquid milk and other products by diluting milk powder.

Sodhi said, “Dairy cooperatives currently hold 1.25-1.5 lakh tonnes of skimmed milk powder (SMP) stock, compared with 2 lakh tonnes a year ago.” 

Dairy major, Amul, has reported an 18% increase in turnover at Rs 27,085 crore in 2016-17 as against Rs 22,972 crore in 2015-16, in terms of across the board sales increase.

The turnover of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which markets Amul brand of milk and dairy products, has increased nearly 3.5 times in the past seven years.

R S Sodhi, Managing Director, GCMMF told PTI, "We have achieved volume sales growth in all product categories.”

Sodhi affirmed that there was no negative impact of demonetisation on its business.

According to Jethabhai Patel, Chairman, GCMMF, Amul plans to step up its milk processing capacity to 380 lakh litres per day, from the current 300 lakh litres, in the next three years.

At the onset of summer season, mercury levels are on the rise with ice cream and frozen dessert makers locked in a legal battle. 

Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and Vadilal Group have joined forces to take on "Amul" ice cream maker Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) over a television commercial, which allegedly belittles "frozen desserts".

HUL, which markets 'Kwality Wall's', has filed a case in the Bombay high court against GCMMF, terming the latter's recently launched TV advertisement as 'misleading'. 

Vadilal Industries and Vadilal Dairy International, which also manufacture frozen desserts, have a common interest in the matter and are supporting HUL in the suit.

HUL has sought immediate removal of the advertisement which, according to GCMMF, was launched to "educate consumers to identify and differentiate between ice-cream and frozen desserts". 

The advertisement talks about Amul ice creams being made from 'real milk' as opposed to 'frozen desserts' which are made from 'vegetable oil'. The advertisement, however, does not name any brand.

An HUL company spokesperson, said, "Amul has been airing a misleading television commercial since March 2017. This advertisement makes factually incorrect statements creating apprehensions among consumers of frozen desserts.The advertisement makes incorrect claims about the usage of `vanaspativanaspati-tel' in frozen dessert products. 

We wish to clarify that Kwality Wall's range of `frozen desserts' do not contain Vanaspati. In fact, Kwality Wall's range of frozen desserts contain milkmilk solids like ice creams. The only difference is that frozen desserts use vegetable fat instead of dairy fat, which actually makes them healthier as they have lower saturated fat and do not have cholesterol."

R S Sodhi, MD, GCMMF, said, "Frozen desserts are masquerading as ice creams. By using low-cost ingredients, they are misleading consumers who are looking for real product. We are trying to make consumers aware of the difference."

Amul will now help Sudan and war-torn Afghanistan fight the problem of severe malnutrition.

The Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers Union Limited (KDCMPUL) popularly known as Amul Dairy has recently received order from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to supply ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) to South Sudan and Afghanistan.

Dr K Rathnam, Managing Director, Amul Dairy, said, "While we have already supplied 50 tonnes RUTF to south Sudan, we have received an order to supply 300 tonnes RUTF to Afghanistan."

Amul Dairy has got itself registered as an UNICEF approved supplier of RUTF after UNICEF last year approved its plant to supply orders up to US $2 million (nearly Rs 12 crore) to begin with. RUTF which Amul has branded as ‘Bal Amul’ is a therapeutic food developed specifically to tackle the problem of ‘severe acute malnutrition’ or SAM.

Rathnam said, "The main purpose was to produce low cost nutritious product to treat malnourished children within and outside the country."

Amul has already supplied 540 tonnes to the state government while another order of 500 tonnes is presently under execution. Since RUTF was not manufactured indigenously, Government of India was skeptical about approving it for treatment of malnourished children in the country.

Rathnam said, "We took up this opportunity under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative. We want to make Gujarat a success story after which we will approve the Central government for the rest of the states."

UNICEF requires 45,000 tonnes per annum RUTF to fight the problem of severe malnutrition globally.

If each of the estimated 10 million severely acute malnourished children of the country are to be treated, it would require production of one lakh tonnes RUTF in a year.

The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which markets dairy products under the brand name of Amul, has decided to hike the milk prices by Rs 2 per litre across all six brands being sold in major pockets of Gujarat and Maharashtra.

The decision to hike the price was taken in a meeting of all the unions, an official said.

Dr K Rathnam, Managing Director, Kheda District Cooperative Milk Producers Union Ltd, also known as Amul Dairy, one of the constituent unions of GCMMF, said, "With this, the Amul Gold milk will now be available for Rs 52 per litre, Shakti for Rs 48, Taza for Rs 40, Slim and Trim for Rs 38, Tea Special for Rs 48 and Cow Milk for Rs 44 per litre."

He said, "The new prices will come into force from tomorrow in Anand, Ahmedabad and Saurashtra markets of Gujarat as well as in Mumbai and Pune region of Maharastra."

Other district cooperatives in the state, such as Sumul Dairy in Surat, will roll out new price list within four days, Rathnam added.

This is the second such hike within eight months by GCMMF. In June 2016, the milk prices had been hiked by Rs 2 per litre.

According to Rathnam, the price hike was necessary to compensate for the recent increase in the milk procurement prices paid to farmers by the federation.

Rathnam said, "Recently, we had started giving Rs 1.5 to Rs 2 more per litre to farmers to procure milk from them. We accepted farmers' demand of increasing the procurement price because they are hit by an increase of almost 25 per cent in the price of cattle fodder."

Companies including Britannia, Amul, Dabur and Parle are either raising prices or cutting quantities in packaged products after the cost of ingredients such as sugar, milk powder and palm oil increased by 20-80 percent over the past year on account of fluctuating global commodity prices and lower production cycles.

Biscuit maker Britannia said prices of its biscuits will go up by up to 7%, while Wipro Consumer Care, the manufacturer of the country’s third-largest soap brand Santoor, said prices will rise about 5%.

Amul, the nation’s top ice-cream maker, said prices are up 5-8% after a two-year gap due to higher sugar and milk powder prices.

Others such as Parle and Dabur are either reducing quantities or clamping down on promotions, which indirectly amount to price increases. “We will cover up the inflation hit and hike prices 6-7%,” said Varun Berry, managing director of Good Day biscuit maker Britannia.

Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting chief executive officer Vineet Agrawal said prices of soap will go up for the first time in three years.

The maker of Santoor soap said the hike is on account of increasing palm oil prices, a key ingredient. “Cost pressures are definitely more than what they were and it is starting to reflect on retail shelves now. Our focus is always topline growth,” Agrawal said. Industry analysts said demand for palm oil from core importers such as India and China has resulted in stiffening of prices. Palm oil is also a key ingredient for detergents and cosmetics.

Religare Capital Markets wrote in a report earlier this month that gross margin pressures have been visible with players initiating selective pricing actions. “Poor demand has weighed on the Indian consumer sector over the last two years. Additional headwinds from demonetisation and GST (goods and services tax) could have a lasting disruptive impact,” Religare wrote in the report.

Parle Products, which makes confectionery and salty snacks besides biscuits, said it has reduced the weight of its confectionery and snacks category after almost four years.

“The price hike is all indirect in the form of weight reduction and translates to anywhere between 8-12% of price hikes,” said BK Rao, marketing manager at Parle Products. Confectionery and snacks account for 15% of the company’s sales, he said.

Besides selling less quantity at the same price, some companies have scaled back freebies. “We are curtailing consumer promotions – which is a proxy for price hikes – to offset inflation across various input costs,” said Sunil Duggal, CEO of Vatika shampoo and Real juices maker Dabur. “We will wait for volumes to stabilise this quarter before taking up pricing.”

Ice-cream makers including category leader Amul have topped up prices 5%-8% ahead of the peak season, a move that has come after two years. Amul managing director RS Sodhi attributed the price hike to milk, sugar and skimmed milk, which have become 30-90% costlier.

The Amul girl has reached beyond the topical ads on newspapers with the company mulling over launch of merchandise based on her.

According to a top company official, once Amul takes a decision in the next 2-3 months, a range of items ranging from key rings to fridge magnets and polka dot frocks may be sold over its 8,000 Amul milk parlours across the country.

R S Sodhi, Managing Director, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), said, "We will consider to come up with merchandise based around Amul butter girl. We will take a final decision on this in next 2-3 months."

GCMMF sells dairy products under the Amul brand.

"We can bring many merchandise like key rings, cups and frocks. We can sell these merchandise through our over 8,000 milk parlours across the country," he said.

"We are known from the campaign. So we are happy," Sodhi said, adding that the campaign, being run for last 50 years, has huge credibility.

"Amul girl has commented on everyone. Nobody has displayed anger. Amul girl is like daughter. We know what she is saying is correct," Sodhi said.

Amul India 3.0, the third edition, is a unique take on 50 years of India's history, the highs and lows, through the eyes of the adorable little Amul poppet.

Covering topical grounds and popular incidents from the contemporary context, this is the all new, comprehensively revised and updated edition.

The book has pieces by prominent writers, public figures and the subject of the hoardings themselves.

The writers, including Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Tharoor, Jug Suraiya, Indrazit Hazra, Jai Arjun Singh, Santosh Desai, Naresh Fernandes, Angello Dias, Arnab Goswami and Karan Johar, have looked at how the Amul girl has over the years covered the nation's concerns and obsessions, specially politics, Bollywood and cricket.

Amul, Mother Dairy and other dairy majors' milk and milk products are preparing to increase prices in the coming months and boost the payouts to farmers.

The dairy majors are expecting a sharp drop in the stock of milk products to carry forward to the next fiscal year in April. They plan to raise milk and milk product prices and pass on the gains to farmers to encourage them to increase supplies, so that they can stock up products for the summer months, a lean period for the production of fresh milk.

RS Sodhi, Managing Director, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation that owns the Amul brand, said, "By the end of March, carry forward stock of skimmed milk powder (SMP) will be 50 percent less of last year and hence we might have to again increase farmers' prices, which will impact the price in the market. Consumer should be ready to pay more."

S Nagarajan, Managing Director, Mother Dairy, said the price that the consumer pays for liquid milk could see an upward movement by February. The cooperative has increased its payment to farmers by Rs 3-4 a litre over the past year, he said. The last consumer price revision was in June-July this year, when milk prices were increased by Rs 1 a litre. Private dairies usually follow Amul and Mother Dairy in revising prices.

Kuldeep Saluja, Managing Director of Sterling Agro Industries, which sells dairy products under the Nova brand has predicted that the price of milk products such as buttermilk, butter, ice-cream to increase 5-10 percent by March. He also added that Amul had not increased the price it pays to farmers in 2014-15, when supplies were more than demand, but the situation has changed now.

Sodhi said, "If Amul increases liquid milk prices, then we will too. Now that milk production has slowed and we have low carry-forward stock of milk powder and butter, we are further increasing (procurement) prices."

He added, "Cattle feed and fodder prices have gone up 32-35 percent in the past one year, so an increase in farmers' price is necessary."

Amul had increased the procurement price for cow milk by 10 percent to Rs 30 a litre and buffalo milk to Rs 41-42 a litre in the past one month and may increase it further.

Sodhi said the carry forward stock till date of SMP in the country by dairy cooperatives and private payers was 32,000-35,000 tonnes, compared with 1.25 lakh tonnes a year earlier.

In the summer months, when milk production drops, the dairy sector manufactures liquid milk and other products by diluting milk powder -10 tonnes of SMP is needed to make 1 lakh litres of milk. November to January is the flush season when milk production increases naturally as there is plenty of green fodder available.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the food safety regulator, has set new standards for camel milk. Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), one of the dairy major, has said that it will launch camel milk within the next three months.

Amul will first start selling camel milk in Ahmedabad and will later launch in other cities.

At an exhibition organised by NGOs 'Sahjeevan' and 'Foundation for Ecological Security', Pawan Agarwal, Chairman, FSSAI, said, "We operationised standards for camel milk today. We took two years to come out with standards. The standards will help better marketing of camel milk in cities."

He also added, "This will also help us create awareness about the health benefits of camel milk."

Agarwal assured that it would take possible measures if any fine tuning is required in the standards going forward.

Hardeep Bhanga, Marketing Manager, GCMMF said that the cooperatiave will launch camel milk in 500 ml bottle in the next three months.

He further added, "Now, the plant is ready in Kutch. We are going to market camel milk in the next three months. Initially, it is will be sold in Ahmedabad through Amul booths in 500 ml bottle."

Radha Mohan Singh, Union Agriculture Minister, said, "After assessing scientifically, camel milk has been recognised with the line of food grade. This will not only benefits rearers of camels but also facilitate for value-addition productions."

Amazon has announced Amul's foray into online selling in the US through its Global Selling Program.

In line with Amazon's vision to transform the way India buys and sells, this exclusive association will enable consumers in the US to enjoy Amul's high-quality products.

At launch, Amul is offering Amul Ghee to global customers through Amazon.com. Going forward, Amul plans to add additional products from its wide product portfolio on Amazon.com

Amazon's Global Selling Program was launched in India in May last year. It facilitates easy, simple and convenient access for all Indian sellers - including entrepreneurs, SMEs, manufacturers as well as large brands – to sell their 'Make in India' products to consumers across the globe.

The program has witnessed a 70% increase in seller base as compared to last year with a total of over 18,000 Indian sellers on the platform selling globally across Amazon's 9 global marketplaces. The program offers a comprehensive end-to-end solution that includes assisting sellers with imaging, logistics, tax advisory and remittance.

R S Sodhi, Managing Director, GCMMF (Amul), said, "Amul has been exporting its products to the USA since last 20 years and has been selling through the traditional retail channel there. We are positive that our mainstream online US consumers can be seamlessly satiated through our partnership with Amazon."

Gopal Pillai, Director and GM, Seller Services, Amazon India, said, "Through this program, we will offer Amul an end-to-end solution and help the brand cater to the growing appetite for quality Indian food products amongst global consumers."

Pillai further added, "We have been witnessing an increasing demand for ‘Made in India’ products amongst global consumers across ethnicities. Since its inception last year, our Global Selling Program has grown multifold and now enables over 18,000 merchants to sell their products to millions of consumers across 9 international markets."

Jethabhai Patel, Chairman, GCMMF, AMUL, informed, "in view of the demonetization of currency notes by Central Government, we have made necessary arrangement to pay milk producer members for their milk price through direct credit in their bank account."

He further informed that, "even though 60 percent of milk producers already have bank accounts, but, due to some vested interests, the payment was made in cash. We are in the process of opening of the bank account for milk producers who do not have their bank account. We have been stressing for the need to go for cashless transactions for the last couple of years. We have asked all our dairy unions to help farmers open their bank accounts in the next couple of months."

Patel has informed that GCMMF (AMUL) and its 18 associated milk unions are paying around Rs. 450 crores on weekly basis to 36 lakhs milk producers through 18,500 milk cooperatives in Gujarat.

He has also informed that due to demonetization of currency notes and restriction by RBI on District Cooperative Banks, rural milk producers are facing shortage of cash.

However, Central and State Governments have made alternative arrangement with the help of RBI for cash disbursement through District Cooperative Banks to milk producers to protect their interest which will definitely help milk producers to meet their daily expenses related to animal husbandry and other requirements.

Patel emphasized that till date, there has been no impact of demonetization of currency notes on milk procurement and sale of milk in the market. In fact, milk procurement of member unions of GCMMF has increased.

Dairy milk cooperatives seem to be very happy about the demonetisation of the higher Indian currency notes, which led to the boost of banking transactions. Dailry milk cooperatives such as Karnataka Milk Federation, Mother Dairy and Amul are expecting to overcome the problem by transferring the money of the farmers to their bank accounts directly.

According to ET, Rakesh Singh, Cooperative managing director, Karnataka Milk Federation said, "We already disburse 970 crore annually — under the motivational fee to farmers since the past one year and will start making the weekly payments too via bank accounts."

Generally the Dairy companies pay the milk-supplying farmers on weekly basis that too in cash, now they will do the same, once in two-three weeks but in place of cash, they are going to transfer the amount directly to their bank account in order to avoid the hassle.

RG Chandramogan, MD of Hatsun Agro, said, "We have made no cash transfers, except for few old people who are unable to go to bank. Initially, there was resistance from farmers but we wanted to get them away from the clutches of money lenders."

Strengthening its team with stalwart professionals, board of India Post Payment Banks (IPPB) has appointed RS Sodhi, MD, Amul as its new independent director. IPPB is the payment arm of the postal department.

Confirming the news, one of the officials stated that Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) Managing Director RS Sodhi has been appointed independent director on the board of IPPB. With this development, Sodhi becomes the fifth independent member to join the team of IPPB which is gearing up start its operations by March 2017. Apart from these independent members, board will also include four in-house representatives.

IPPB came into existence after it received certificate of incorporation from the Registrar of Companies on August 17.Payments bank allows mobile firms, supermarket chains, and others to cater to banking requirements of individuals and small businesses. It will be set up as a differentiated bank and will confine its activities to acceptance of demand deposits, remittance services, Internet banking and other specified services.

IPPB is targeting to achieve its goal of becoming the most accessible bank in the world in its segment. Coupled with physical presence across 1.55 lakh post offices and the reach of the postman, the India Post Payments Bank plans to become a powerful and effective vehicle of real financial inclusion in the country.

India’s leading brand in dairy product business, Amul is now targeting to augment its chocolate business. Moved by the recent hike in the demand, company has decided to triple its chocolate production to meet the requirements.

The Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers Union Limited, popularly known as Amul Dairy is marching further to increase its capacity at the Mogar plant from 3000 tons per annum to 12000 tons per annum. Mogar is the only chocolate plant in the entire network of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) - the apex body of all the district milk unions of Gujarat that markets brand Amul.

Being the fourth largest producer of chocolate in the country after Cadbury, Ferrero and Nestle, the company has witnessed a great demand in this segment and that reflects in its sales figures as they have shot up. Presently, Amul is producing 3000 tons of chocolate every year but its demand has gone up to 3500 tons per year, hence, forcing the company to increase its capacity. 

Speaking about the move, Dr K Rathnam, MD, Amul Dairy stated that the current chocolate making capacity which is 250 tons per month will be increased to 1,000 tons per month looking at the growth of the segment and to meet the increasing demand of Amul chocolates in the next 10 to 15 years, both from consumers as well as institutional level. Company will be investing Rs 100 crore for this.

Tenders for the capacity expansion have already been issued while the technical evaluation is going on. By end of next month, the board will take final call on technology. The expansion will be completed in next 12 to 15 months. Amul chocolates, especially dark chocolates and 150 gram bars, are being well received from consumers. Brand sees growth in this segment as people have started gifting chocolates instead of sweets during festive seasons, told Rathnam.

One of India’s leading milk suppliers, Mother Dairy has decided to hike milk prices by Re 1 each for both half and one litre pouch. The company has however not raised the prices of token milk (bulk-vended milk) and cow milk.

The hike in price came after 24 months. Last month, India’s leader in dairy products, Amul also took the similar call and increased the milk prices by Re 1 for both one and half litre pouch in Delhi NCR region. Currently, Mother Dairy supplies around one lakh litre of milk in Delhi NCR region. Recently company released an official statement which stated that company has raises its milk prices in Delhi NCR for key polypack milk variants by Re 1 with effect from July 16, 2016.

As per the new rates, full cream milk will be available at Rs 49 per litre, while toned milk at Rs 39 and double-toned at Rs 35 per litre. For a half litre pack, the price of full-cream milk has been increased to Rs 25 from Rs 24, while the rate of toned milk has been raised to Rs 20 from Rs 19 and double-toned milk to Rs 18 from Rs 17.

It is important to note that the company has increased its farm prices by about 7-8 per cent in last one year while the effective consumer price hike is not more than 3 per cent, company’s statement states further. 

Gujarat based dairy major Amul’s Managing Director has received a threat call from a person claiming to be a member of fugitive Ravi Pujari's gang, following which a probe was initiated by the Ahmedabad crime branch.

R S Sodhi is the MD of Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which sells its products under 'Amul' brand and has headquarters at Anand town in Kheda district.

According to crime branch officials, a person claiming to be a member of Pujari gang called Sodhi a few days back and demanded Rs 25 crore as protection money.

"The extortion call was made from an international number. Sodhi was asked to pay Rs 25 crore or else face consequences," shared K N Patel, Assistant Commissioner, city crime.

"Since we are already probing few other cases related to extortion calls claimed to be made by Ravi Pujari gang, the state DGP has ordered to hand over the probe to us," he said.

According to him, computer software might have been used to divert a local call into an international call.

"Though it was an international number, it is possible that the call might have been made from India. Using some softwares, one can convert the local number into an international number. We are now probing the case from different angles," Patel added.

Senior BJP MLA and Chairman of Panchmahal Dairy, Jetha Bharwad was unanimously elected as the first vice chairman of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) that sells its dairy products under brand name 'Amul', reported PTI.

Since its start in 1973, this is for the first time that GCMMF created the post of vice-chairman by amending their by-laws recently.

Bharwad, MLA from Sehra constituency of Panchmahal district became the first vice chairman of the prestigious cooperative institution.

The election was conducted by the Prant Officer B S Patel in presence of chairman of all the 17 member unions, who represented their district milk unions in the state.

Bharwad's nomination was proposed by Rajkot Dairy's chairman Govind Ranpariya and supported by the chairman of Sarhad dairy in Kutch Valji Umbad. Chairman of the Sabarkantha District Cooperative Milk Producers Union (Sabar Dairy) Jethabhai Patel is currently the chairman of GCMMF.

GCMMF is considered as India's largest food products marketing organisation with an annual turnover of Rs 21,000 crore.

The member unions of GCMMF procure an average of 160 lac litres of milk everyday from 36 lac milk producers in 18,000 villages of the state.

Goa Dairy's managing committee says it does not feel threatened with the entry of Amul into Goa's retail market, reported TNN.

Baburao Fatto Desai, Goa Dairy chairman said that there would be no problem if Amul milk launches its operations full-fledged in Goa.

"Goan consumers trust Goa Dairy milk and they will prefer the milk marketed by Goa Dairy. Amul is already in the Goan market but it could not affect the sale of Goa Dairy," he said.

While the Goa state cooperative milk producers' union, popularly known as Goa Dairy is a premier milk supplier in the Goan retail market with a sale of about 85,000 litres of milk per day among a daily consumption of about 1 lakh litres of milk in Goa.

The state has about 175 milk-supply societies and of them, 165 societies are members of Goa Dairy that supply dairy milk collected from milk-producing farmers daily. It is suspected that Amul may procure milk from local dairy farmers on competitive rates. Fatto Desai refutes this theory.

"Goan farmers are in contract with Goa Dairy and they cannot supply milk to any other group," he said.

A former Goa Dairy functionary feels that tough competition lies ahead for it. He opined that the state cooperative dairy has to work very hard to sustain itself if it has to compete with the national milk major.

"Goa Dairy now thinks about profitability but it will have to put more efforts for sustainability after Amul's full-fledged entry in the market," said  Madhav Sahakari, former chairman and presently a director of the dairy.

Coca-Cola is working on an ambitious plan for the Indian market an entry into the pure dairy segment, which will pit it against Amul, Britannia and Nestle, reported ET.

The maker of Thums Up cola and Minute Maid juice plans to introduce its global milk-based beverage brand Vio in India without any carbonation. "This will be an entirely India innovation," said an official aware of the development. "The rollout could happen as early as January next year or by next quarter at the most. The front-end and back-end are being fine-tuned," said another official aware of Coca-Cola's plans.

Coca-Cola has roped in dairy giant Schreiber Dynamix Dairies for its milk drink, one of the officials said. The plan is to introduce bottled Vio in locally relevant flavours in the first phase.

"We already have an offering in the dairy space Maaza Milky Delite which has a presence in select markets. Vio is a global brand and is, therefore, an option available to us. It is too early for us to comment on a possible launch of this brand in India," said a spokesperson of Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola's move to tap the dairy market comes as fizzy drink sales have been struggling with low single-digit growth over at least the past five quarters. While aerated drinks are an Rs 14,000-crore category, they are driven by seasonality and remain indulgence consumption. Packaged dairy is a Rs75,000-crore market that's growing at about 15 per cent. Packaged milk alone contributes as much as Rs 50,000 crore.

"It is worth the challenge because if it works, it can be a game changer for Coca-Cola. Unlike colas, dairy is a traditional, culturally deep-rooted and high-involvement daily consumption category and could bring Coca-Cola into the daily grocery consumption basket, bringing its brands very close to the Indian consumer", said Devendra Chawla, group president, food and FMCG at retailer Future Group.

In the US, Vio is a carbonated, skimmed milk-based beverage. In India, the plan is to introduce it as a flavoured milk drink without carbonation. It is introduced by the beverage giant in 2009 as a carbonated 'vibrancy' dairy drink, comes with skimmed milk and flavours such as citrus, peach and berry and is positioned as a drink free of preservatives and fortified with vitamin C. Marketers believe pure dairy could be a huge challenge for a cola maker.

"It could be a DNA challenge for a soft drink company to do dairy, which is not its core business. It's similar to a non-ayurvedic company getting into Ayurveda," Chawla said. Vio isn't the first milk-based drink from the Coca-Cola deck. Late last year, it had launched Fairlife in the US; a premium product introduced through a joint venture with dairy farmers and made using a proprietary milk filtering process.

Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), major dairy which sells milk and other dairy products under the Amul brand, said it has promoted Kishore Jhala as the Chief Operating Officer (COO), reported PTI

Earlier Jhala was the Chief General Manager at GCMMF, said the company. "GCMMF has plans for doubling its current turnover of Rs 25,000 crore by 2020 and his new role in the organisation will help in contributing to the achievement of the same," it added.

Jhala has nearly three decades of experience in GCMMF.

In 1986, he had joined the organisation as a product manager and assumed various responsibilities in sales and marketing.  

Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), owner of Amul plans to expand its presence in Punjab from 50 collection centres to 1,000, at an investment of Rs 150 crore.

As cooperatives pay at least a rupee a litre over private buyers, it is good news for milk producers in the state.

Amul has branches like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Haryana (apart from Gujarat) but Punjab is going to be crucial, due to the scale of commercial dairy farming and the highest yield per cattle,‖ said R S Sodhi, managing director of GCMMF.

The huge milk surplus here can help us grow faster than the current 20 per cent annual rate. Nestle is the largest milk processor among private entities in the state, procuring 800,000-900,000 litres a day for its units at Moga (Punjab) and Baddi (Himachal Pradesh).

GlaxoSmithKline Beecham, Wockhardt, Supreme Agro, MilkFed and Rana Food are some of the prominent private milk processors. Punjab‘s average daily production is 26.5 million litres a day and the marketable surplus is 15 million litres a day. Of the latter, private entities take about 1.32 million litres. The bulk of this is by Punjab State Cooperative Milk Producers‘Federation; it procures close to 1.2 million litres a day.

Amul‘s present share is an insignificant 50,000 litres a day. Under the expansion, GCMMF is to have 1,000 collection centres, with infrastructure to procure at least a million litres a day, said Sodhi.

In the processing of milk, setting up of a cluster of procurement centres with state-of-the-art equipment is the most crucial component of investment. A processing plant can be hired through a third party. We have such an arrangement at Batala in Punjab and plan to replicate this at Khamano, near Ludhiana and at Bathinda. The operations at Khamano would commence this month and Bathinda might take some time, he added.

The organised sector in Punjab handles only five per cent of milk processing, said Inderjit Singh, director, dairy development, in the state government. The expansion of brands like Amul, backed by the cooperatives would enhance competition and help farmers both financially and on quality parameters. The cooperatives provide backward integration in the form of good feed, inputs and the latest knowledge to dairy farmers.

A purchase tax of 3.5 per cent on milk in Punjab has been a hurdle in expansion of private entities in milk processing. The farm price of milk is Rs 28-29 a litre for cow milk and Rs 34-35 for buffalo milk. 

Amul, owned and operated by Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, will procure milk from 1,000 villages in Punjab, a move that is likely to provide of Rs 2,000 crore worth annual benefits to dairy farmers.

The group has also announced the setting up of milk processing facilities in Khamano and Bathinda, reported PTI.

"What we are planning to do is to cover 1,000 villages of Punjab. In each village, we are putting up modern milk testing and weightment and bulk milk cooler system. Each village's investment is around Rs 15 lakh and so 1,000 villages we are going to cover, Rs 150 crore in villages (will be) for only milk procurement," shared R S Sodhi, Md, Amul at the investment summit in the state.

Asserting that there is a huge opportunity of milk processing in the state, Sodhi said Punjab produces 2.70 crore litres of milk and out of which 1.60 crore litres is surplus.

"Out of surplus milk available, 50 per cent is procured by organized sector and of this, 15 per cent is going to cooperative like Verka.

"The balance is procured by companies which are doing commercial business and are not able to give good price. That is why farmers are not producing milk," he said.

"Our endeavour is to provide benefits of value addition to milk producers so framers are encouraged to produce milk," he added.

Sodhi observed that per capita production of milk is highest in Punjab.

"Average per capita production or consumption of milk in India is 300 gram per day per person while in Punjab it is one litre and in Gujarat it is only 500 gram. It is because Punjabi farmers know how to rear animals and fodders," he noted.

He said Amul, which has Rs 2,4000 crore of turnover, is owned by 36 lakh farmers.

Farmers not only produce milk here, they process and market themselves so the benefit of value addition goes back to farmers," he added.

Amul has already set up a milk processing facility in Batala.

Stating that Amul has started going out of Gujarat to give benefits to farmers of other states, he said setting up a venture in Punjab came after he met Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal last year.

R S Sodhi, Managing Director of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Foundation has been given extension for another five years for his role as the MD of the group.

The decision to extend the tenure of Sodhi was taken last week in a board meeting of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which owns Amul brand.

"Sodhi has done a good work as Managing Director of the company, so the board decided to extend his tenure for one more term of five years," shared Jethabhai P Patel, Chairman, GCMMF told PTI.

Patel added that Sodhi has done a remarkable job especially in marketing. He has a long experience of working with the cooperative and had worked with Dr Kurien.

Sodhi was supposed to retire on December 31, after completing his term of five years. He has been working with Amul for the last 34 years.

He has done his MBA from the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) and started his career as Senior Manager Sales in Amul only.

Amul is one of the country's largest food product marketing organisation and had an annual turnover of Rs 20,733 crore in 2014-15.

Its daily milk procurement is about 14.85 million litres from 18,536 village milk cooperative societies, 17 member unions covering 31 districts, and 3.37 million milk producer members.

Amul is expecting its turnover to jump by 18 per cent to Rs 24,500 crore on the back of rising consumption in 2015-16.

Amul, owned by Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), is planning to set up four dairy plants with a total investment of Rs 600 crore in Uttar Pradesh, a top company official told PTI.

"We are putting up big plants in Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi and Saifai. This would be around Rs 600 crore of investments," shared R S Sodhi, MD, GCMMF.

The official said that this will help in generating employment for lakhs of people in the rural UP.

The dairy major is already collecting 5 lakh litres of milk from 1 lakh families and giving around Rs 700 crore per annum to the rural UP.

He said the company plans to increase its milk procurement from the state to 45 lakh litres over the next three years.

"In the next three years, our target is to reach to 5 lakh families collecting 45 lakh litres of milk and giving every year around Rs 4,000 crore to the rural UP," Sodhi added.

In order to attract investors, the UP government today organised an investors' summit in the financial capital of the country.

In the meeting, the UP government received an investment commitment of Rs 33,000 crore from LG, Reliance Jio, Godrej Agrovet, Idea Cellular, Toshiba Power and ITC, among others.