Amul's BIG PIVOT

THE ₹55,000-CRORE DAIRY IS GOING AGGRESSIVE ON ITS EXISTING PORTFOLIO AND IS MAKING A BIG PLAY IN ORGANIC FOODS CO-OPERATIVE

- KRISHNA GOPALAN

On a busy day, about half a million people pass through New York’s Times Square, a big tourist attraction known for its innovative advertising and digital billboards. On Sunday, October 8, a campaign titled ‘Be More Milk’ went live there. Targeted at youngsters, this 15-second message has been playing out 20 times an hour and 480 times daily. What’s cool is that it is an initiative run by Amul, one of India’s most well-known brands. The Amul advertisement is at the Nasdaq MarketSite.

It will run for four weeks and is expected to strengthen the base of the Indian dairy major’s journey into foreign markets, although it pushes the cause of milk more than of Amul. The dairy major wants to go beyond the Indian diaspora.

And it has the muscle: for FY23, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which owns the Amul brand name, reported a turnover of ₹55,070 crore, an increase of over 18 per cent on the previous year. The target for FY26 is ₹1 lakh crore. The group turnover, or the unduplicated sales (this includes those of member unions) of all products under the brand Amul, exceeded ₹72,000 crore last financial year.

Milk and milk products still account for 96 per cent of GCMMF’s revenue. But it wants to change this by aiming for scale in new businesses that fit nicely into the Amul supply chain and its closeness to farmers. For one, the cooperative behemoth is hungry for organic food.

SPOTTING THE TREND

There is a smile on Jayen S. Mehta’s face as he pops in a