New Pastures

Amul has big plans, and they go beyond the dairy sector

- Nachiket Kelkar

WHEN A HANDFUL of farmers in two villages in Gujarat formed the Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union in 1946, it produced just about 250 litres of milk a day. It turned into a revolution under Verghese Kurien, India's milkman. Today, the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) is spread across 18,700 villages and has 18 member unions.

GCMMF's Amul is Asia’s largest milk brand and a market leader in India of most dairy products like butter, ghee, yoghurt, butter milk, lassi and flavoured milk. But R.S. Sodhi, managing director of GCMMF, does not want Amul to rest on its laurels, and he has been charting out the milk giant's diversification plans.

Amul recently launched fruit juices under the Amul Tru brand. GCMMF is betting on Amul’s strong network and brand popularity to drive the sales. It will not be a cakewalk, though. Dabur’s Real, Coca-Cola’s Minute Maid and Pepsico’s Tropicana brands have a strong presence in the market. Startups like Hector Beverages’ Paper Boat also have made a splash. “We saw this juice-based category growing like anything,” said Sodhi. “The change we did was, we added milk solids [to juice]. Amul Tru is a differential product with juice plus milk solids.”