A
taste of Amul
Shuchi
Srivastava chats with RS Sodhi, General Manager, Marketing, about milk
and beyond
What
is the total quantity of milk that Amul collects?
Amul was established in the 1946 and was procuring 246 liters of milk
per day while now it is procuring 51 lakh litres per day,
How
many cooperatives are currently under the Amul umbrella?
More than 11,000 cooperative societies are a member of Amul now. On
an average in the Kaira district there are 200 producers providing milk
to their village cooperative societies twice a day. Each cooperative
society collects milk and supplies to the district union, each union
has a dairy plant and is an independent organisation which fixes rates
individually.
What
is the ratio of milk procured and the actual amount marketed?
The entire quantity of milk procured is either marketed as liquid milk
or converted into value added products like butter, ghee, dairy whitener,
milk powder and others. Consistent Market response ensures that even
if a milk surplus occurs and an unprecedent increase in production occurs
then it can be sustained
What
is the percentage of milk converted into value added products?
Out of the entire milk procured, approximately 40 per cent is sold as
liquid milk and 60 per cent is converted to value added products.
As
far as products that are exported like pure ghee, butter, cheese, shrikhand,
are any special methods adopted to make them internationally competitive?
The products that we export are meant for the huge population of Non
Resident Indians. Cheese is very popular with them as our cheese is
vegetarian in nature. Ghee Indian sweetmeats and Tetra Pak milk are
also constantly in demand. Our endeavour is to constantly meet the standards
that these countries deem mandatory.
What
are the countries that Amul exports to and does it plan to expand its
reach?
We export our products to the Gulf countries, USA and Singapore and
are looking at other markets, but with the WTO in place the international
markets are increasingly difficult to tackle.
Among
all your products which are the most successful products and why?
We are doing extremely well in all the product categories that we are
operating in, be it butter, dairy whitener or ice creams. We command
a primary position as far as butter is concerned with a market share
of more than 86 per cent. In case of baby food we are at 64-65 per cent
while in the dairy whitener segment we have about 61-62 per cent share.
Amul is able to give competitive prices to the farmers as they manage
to maintain very low overheads, also able to market milk and value added
products well which has a cascading effect on the farmer as they in
turn receive adequate remuneration and thus they are motivated to produce
more milk and supply to the cooperatives.
Is
Amul's liquid milk segment challenged by multinationals and private
players like Nestle, Britannia and Hindustan Lever?
We are not really threatened by other players although other cooperatives
are facing stiff competition from private players, there is enough milk
going around for all.
What
is the kind of marketing strategy that you employ?
We believe in umbrella branding and not in having a specific brand entity
for each product like some of our counterparts, a strategy especially
effective if coffers are not very deep.
Amul's
advertising strategy has been particularly successful, how does it still
continue to captivate audiences countrywide? What role has it played
in making Amul a household brand?
Our foray into advertising was....
.....CONTD
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