History of amul

Amul's genesis is linked to the freedom movement in India. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, an
eminent Indian freedom fighter encouraged the dairy farmers from the Kaira district in Gujarat to
form a cooperative to counter the 'exploitatively' low prices offered for their milk by the
monopoly milk supplier of the area, Polson's Dairy. The dairy farmers met in Samarkha (Kaira
district, Gujarat) on the 4th of January 1946, and decided to set up a milk producers' cooperative
that would deal directly with the Bombay government, the final buyer of their milk.

THE TASTE OF INDIA, AMUL comes from the Sanskrit word Amoolya, means
priceless. It was suggested by a quality control expert in Anand and it was
chosen because it was a perfect acronym for Anand Milk Union Limited . AMUL
was formed under the dairy cooperative movement in India in 1946.

Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) is India's largest food

products marketing organisation. It is a state level apex body of milk
cooperatives in Gujarat which aims to provide remunerative returns to the
farmers and also serve the interest of consumers by providing quality
products which are good value for money. AMUL is the brand under this
organization. Amul is the largest food brand in India and world's Largest
Pouched Milk Brand with an annual turnover of US $1050 million (2006-07).
Currently Amul has 2.6 million producer members with milk collection
average of 10.16 million litres per day. Besides India, Amul has entered
overseas markets such as Mauritius, UAE, USA, Bangladesh, Australia, China,
Singapore, Hong Kong and a few South African countries. Its bid to enter
Japanese market in 1994 had not succeeded, but now it has fresh plans of
flooding the Japanese markets .Other potential markets being considered
include Sri Lanka.Dr Verghese Kurien, former chairman of the GCMMF, is
recognised as the man behind the success of Amul. On 10 Aug 2006 Parthi G
Bhatol, chairman of the Banaskantha Union, was elected chairman of
GCMMF.

Plants

First plant is at ANAND , which engaged in the manufacturing of milk, butter, ghee,
milk powder, flavored milk and butter milk. It is establish in 1973.

Second plant is at MOGAR , which engaged in manufacturing chocolate, Nutramul,

Amul Ganthia and Amul Bite. This plant establish in 1973. It is situated on Anand –
Vadodara Highway No. 8.
Third plant is at Kanjar i , which produces cattle feed. Old plant establish in 1964 &
new plant in 1980.
Fourth plant is at Khatra j , which engaged in producing cheese. It is situated
between Nadiad – Ahemdabad

Supply chain of amul

GCMMF’s Supply Chain

***Source: IIM(A), Working Paper No. 2002-05-06

AMUL has the largest cold chain network in India (i.e. 18000 refrigerators) as
compared to any other company. The chemical components of milk are water,
SNF and solids. Milk is very perishable product so it has to be consumed within
24 hours. In order to avoid wastage AMUL converts the milk in to SNF and milk
solids by evaporating the water, which comprises up to 60-70% of milk contents.
This is possible only if the distribution channel right from the producer to the
consumer is well organized. It will be surprising to know that AMUL makes even
the ‘Sarpanch’ to eat pizza i.e. it supplies pizzas even to rural market.

Last year, theye divided the retail market into 14 specific segments to achieve
further distribution efficiency. This year our focus was on inducting distributors
having expertise in servicing such specific market segments. This initiative is
yielding results by way of ensuring wider availability of our product range.

The role of distributors in our business process has never been more diverse or
more important, as it is today. As a matter of fact, we consider our Distributor to
be the real “Marketing Manager” of our organization. To enhance business
performance of our Distributors, a workshop on Marketing and Sales Management
was designed in collaboration with a premier business school. The objective of the
entire initiative was to upgrade the knowledge of our Distributors in terms of
contemporary Business Management Practices, so that they can perform well not
only as our business partner but also as Marketing Managers. During the year, 659
Distributors have undergone this programme in 39 locations. Cold Storage is an
extremely essential component in the Federation’s distribution process.
Unfortunately, availability of efficient cold storage facilities is grossly inadequate
in our country. To cope up with the increasing need of suitable cold stores closer
to our markets, we have continued our endeavour of creating the Federation’s own
cold stores this year in various locations across the country. We now own 24 state-
of- the art cold rooms of different sizes.

To get an exposure to our cooperative structure, our culture as well as operational

systems and processes, every year we invite our distributors, major retailers and
other business partners to Anand, for Amul Yatra. So far, about 7000 Distributors
and other business partners have participated in this Amul Yatra.

Over recent years, the Federation has successfully introduced new product lines.
This year, in order to leverage their distribution network strengths, to optimize
market supervision expenditures, to achieve increasing efficiency while keeping
the distribution infrastructure lean, focused and productive, the Federation
amalgamated its different distribution networks. Today, they operate an efficient
distribution infrastructure consisting of 46 sales offices, catering to 3,000
distributors and five lac retailers. Almost every Federation stockist has visited
Anand to participate in a unique programme called 'Amul Yatra'. During this
programme, stockists are exposed to the Federation Philosophy, the culture of
Cooperation, as well as operational Systems and Processes. The Federation has
also invited distributor's salesmen from all over the country to Anand for a training
program focused on the Federation's philosophy and developing their selling
skills.