Action at amul

Visit of Army officials from EME School, Vadodara to Anand

17 Army officials and their family members from EME School, Vadodara visited GCMMF-Head Office, Anand on 18th December 2014. They met Shri K.M. Jhala, Chief General Manager and other senior officials of GCMMF and interacted with them.

Visit of Official from Tamil Nadu Co-op. Milk Producers’ Federation Ltd. to Anand

Nine officials from Tamil Nadu Co-op Milk Producers' Federation Ltd, including Joint MD, Sh R. Gajalakhsmi (IAS) visited GCMMF-Head Office on 16th December, 2014 and interacted with MD and other Senior Officials of GCMMF.

Visit of Board of Directors of NARMAC to Anand

17 Board of Directors of NARMAC (Nalgonda-Ranga Reddy Milk Producers Mutually Aided Cooperative) Union Ltd, Andhra Pradesh visited GCMMF-Head Office on 5th December, 2014 and met MD and other Senior Officials of GCMMF.

Team from Department for International Development (DFID)

A team of 6 members from Department for International Development (DFID) India and VALID Nutrition (a social enterprise working for development of ready to eat therapeutic foods in Africa) visited GCMMF Head Office on 1st December 2014. They met Shri R S Sodhi, MD-GCMMF, Shri KM Jhala, Chief General-GCMMF, Shri K. Rathanam,MD-Amul and other Senior Officials of GCMMF.

Shri Azim Premji, Founder Chairman-Wipro visited GCMMF, Anand

Shri Azim Premji, Founder Chairman of Wipro Limited along with his Senior Team visited GCMMF's Head Office at Anand on 22nd November, 2014. He interacted with Shri R.S. Sodhi, MD-GCMMF, Shri K.M. Jhala - CGM and other Senior officials. He was briefed the Co-operative structure and business operations of Amul. He acknowledged and appreciated the valuable contribution of Amul to the Indian Society. He was impressed by the achievements of Amul.

GCMMF and Wipro has a strong relationship of more than 20 years wherein GCMMF has procured Computer Hardware and IT infrastructure Maintenance services from Wipro Limited.

‘AMUL cooperative model critical for India’s food security’ acknowledges Union Minister of Food Processing Industries

(Shri R S Sodhi, MD, GCMMF (Amul) and Dr. K Rathnam, MD, Kaira Milk Union are explaining to Hon. Union Minister of Food Processing Industries, Ms. Harsimrat Kaur Badal)

During her visit to Amul headquarters in Anand Gujarat, on 29th September, Hon. Union Minister of Food Processing Industries, Ms. Harsimrat Kaur Badal acknowledged the valuable contribution of Amul cooperative model in securing India’s food security in one of its most critical dimensions: milk & dairy products. While appreciating Amul’s contribution to nation-building, the Hon. Minister stated that dairy cooperative movement inspired by Amul model has enabled India to become the highest milk producing country in the world, with 17% share of global milk production. ‘Amul cooperative model is the prime example of how Indian farmers can set standards of excellence that the entire world aspires to emulate. Amul is truly the pride of India’, added the Minister. With India’s population likely to rise to 170 crores in the next five decades and level of urbanization anticipated to exceed 50% in next fifty years, ensuring food security of our nation will remain the topmost priority. ‘Through the success of Amul, our farmers have proved that they very much capable of overcoming the challenge of ensuring food security, provided we enable them to exercise control over a large part of food value chain’, stated the Minister.

While visiting GCMMF Headquarters and the Amul dairy plant, the Hon. Minister appreciated the fact that 33 lakhs farmer-members of Amul have benefited immensely from market access, financial linkages and value-additional through marketing & technological innovations provided by the cooperative. The Minister made a firsthand assessment of socio-economic revolution unleashed by Amul in rural Gujarat, as well as the IT-enabled supply chain network which ensure that 80% of consumer’s rupee spent on Amul’s products, ultimately flow back to the farmers. ‘The real beneficiaries of Amul cooperative model are millions of Indian consumers who now have access to high quality and hygienic milk and dairy products. At the same time, millions of rural women and small farmers have attained gainful employment as well as remunerative livelihood, thanks to Amul’, noted the Minister.

Hon’ble Minister has also visited two food processing units in Boriavi village to see value addition in fresh vegetable and other agriculture produce like ginger and turmeric by farmers which enabled them to realize better prices for their product. At Vrundavan cold storage, Hon’ble Minister has noticed that farmers income from ginger is increased from Rs. 5.50 lakhs per hectare to Rs. 15 Lakhs per hectare and turmeric income from Rs. 5 lakhs to Rs. 20 lakhs by adopting simple technological invention at local level. Similarly, at M Z Cold storage Minister is amazed to see various grading, sorting and frozen technology adopted by farmer.

Shri Jethabhai Patel elected as Chairman of Gujarat Co-Operative Milk Marketing Federation Limited, Anand

Shri Jethabhai Patel has been unanimously elected as the Chairman of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) today. His nomination was proposed by Shri Parthibhai Bhatol, Chairman of Banaskantha Union, Palanpur and supported by Kaira Union Chairman Shri Ramsinghbhai Parmar. GCMMF board consists of 17 Board of Directors and they are representing their district milk unions at GCMMF. GCMMF Board has once again maintained its glorious tradition of unanimous elections of its Chairman since inception in 1973.

GCMMF is India’s largest food products marketing organization with annual turnover of Rs.18, 143 crores during year 2013-14. It markets a wide range of milk and milk products under the brand name “Amul” and “Sagar”. Member unions of GCMMF are procuring on an average of 132 lac litres of milk everyday from 33 lac milk producers from more than 17,000 villages of the state.

Shri Jethabhai Patel is the Chairman of Sabarkantha District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Limited., Himatnagar popularly known as “Sabar Dairy” since 2010. Sabar Union is one of the largest unions of the state with annual sales turnover exceeding Rs. 2400 crores and farmer membership of 3.6 lac milk producers. Milk Union is procuring on an average of 15 lac litres of milk per day within Gujarat and outside. It has dairy plants in Sabarkantha District and one dairy plant at Rohtak, Haryana with processing capacity of 10 lac liter per day.

Shri Jethabhai Patel is a progressive dairy farmer and also an veteran Cooperative leader of Gujarat State. He has been associated with various Cooperative organizations since last three decades. He is also the Chairman of Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC), Himatnagar and Director of Sabarkantha District Central Cooperative Bank Ltd., Himatnagar since last two decades.

Amul Parlour at IRMA, Anand

Prof. Jeemol Unni, Director-IRMA and Shri K.M. Jhala, CGM-GCMMF Ltd. inaugurated Amul Parlour today at Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) main entrance.

Amul sponsors the Indian Contingent to 2014 Commonwealth Games and Asian Games

New Delhi: India’s largest food products marketing organization Amul today announced its sponsorship of the Indian contingents to the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, Incheon, South Korea by signing a MoU with the Indian Olympic Association. The MoU was signed by Shri Rajeev Mehta, Secretary General, IOA and Shri R S Sodhi, Managing Director, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (Amul) in a function graced by Shri Rakesh Gupta, Joint Secretary and Sh Anil Khanna, Treasurer, Indian Olympic Association. Amul has become the Official Sponsor of the Indian team in the category of Dairy products.

Announcing Amul’s support for the Indian contingent to both these prestigious sporting events, Mr. R S Sodhi said that "Amul is committed to strengthening the support to sports in various forms and encourage young generation from all corners of the country to take up sports. I take great pleasure and pride in announcing our sponsorship of the Indian contingent to the XX Commonwealth Games and the XVII Asian Games." Explaining the rationale of this association, he said that milk is nature’s original energy drink and plays a pivotal role in building the physical and mental strength of the athletes. Amul has embarked upon an "Eat Milk with Every Meal" campaign to highlight the importance of milk and dairy products like cheese, yogurt, butter, ghee, paneer etc. in the daily diet. India is the largest producer of milk in the world and Amul is not only India’s but Asia’s largest milk brand. Further, he said that this association and activities around it will help in engaging the kids and youth so that they can enjoy a healthy life.

Amul has associated with sports events like football, Cricket World Cup and Formula 1 to engage the youth. Mr Sodhi mentioned that the Amul had sponsored the Indian contingent to the London Olympic Games in 2012 which was India’s most successful Olympics. With the kind of investments made by our country to select, nurture and train the best athletes, we are confident that Indian contingents to the forthcoming Commonwealth and Asian Games will deliver their best ever performances and make our country proud.

Lauding Amul’s support to the Indian Olympic contingent, Shri Rajeev Mehta, Secretary General, IOA said this support to the Indian sports will go a long way and further strengthen the bond between Amul and IOA and leave a longer lasting impact on the sports lovers and sports persons.

Amul will launch a series of advertising campaigns for milk and various dairy products to promote this association in the coming months.

The XX Commonwealth Games will be held at Glasgow, Scotland from July 23 to August 3 and the XVII Asian Games scheduled to be held at Incheon, South Korea from 19th Sept– 4th October, 2014.

Amul wins World Dairy Innovation Awards - 2014

GCMMF (Amul) won the World Dairy Innovation Awards-2014 of Best Marketing Campaign for its "Eat Milk with Every Meal" campaign. The finalists and winners in the World Dairy Innovation Awards 2014 were announced on 17 June 2014 at the 8th Global Dairy Congress in Istanbul, Turkey. Sh K. M Jhala, Chief General Manager, received the award.

Also, the entry of launch of Amul Kool in PET bottle was chosen as a finalist for the best innovation in brand extension.

According to the Global Dairy Congress,  the judging panel considered almost 160 entries from 30 countries in 17 categories. They mentioned that there were some excellent applications this year so to be considered among the best is a big achievement. Innovation continues to be the key driver in the dairy industry and that was evident in the wide range of new products and packaging ideas, use of new ingredients, great new marketing campaigns, brand extensions and a huge variety of nutrition and environmental projects that interact with consumers and the wider community. All this activity helps to make the dairy sector the most exciting food and beverage category.

Since 2007, World Dairy Innovation Awards are held at the Global Dairy Congress – designed to celebrate excellence and innovation across every category of the global dairy industry.

Shri R. S. Sodhi, Managing Director, GCMMF said that expansion, innovation and brand building are the three pillars of Amul's strategy to achieve the growth. We are glad that our efforts are being recognised at the global level.

GCMMF is India's largest food product marketing organisation with annual turnover of Rs. 18,150 Cr. (US$ 3.0 billion).

Visit of Ms. Nicola Watkinson, Minister of Commercial and Senior Trade & Investment Commissioner, Government of Australia.

Ms. Nicola Watkinson, Minister of Commercial and Senior Trade & Investment Commissioner, Government of Australia, visited GCMMF and Amul Dairy on 18th June, 2014 to understand the "Amul" model of dairy Co-operatives.

She met Shri R S Sodhi, Managing Director and other Senior Officials of GCMMF. She noted the impressive growth achieved by GCMMF and its Member Unions.

Visit of Ambassador of Mongolia

Mr. Sanjaasuren Bayaraa His Excellency the Ambassador of Mongolia and Ms. Naranzul Bayasgalan Second secretary (Commerce), Mongolian Embassy in India visited GCMMF and Amul Dairy on 4th June 2014. They met Shri R S Sodhi, Managing Director and other Senior Officials of GCMMF.

Visit of delegates from Kenya Dairy Farmer Federation

Delegates from Kenya Dairy Farmer Federation (KDFF) and EADD (East Africa Dairy Development Project of Heifer International) visited us from 25th May 2014 to 31st May 2014. The purpose of the visit was to gain deep knowledge about the operations of GCMMF and AMUL with special focus on procurement and marketing. They met Shri R S Sodhi, Managing Director and gained from his insights on marketing strategy for new cooperatives.

Expansion and Innovation propels Amul to 32% growth

Date: 15^th May 2014

GCMMF which markets the extremely popular Amul brand of milk and dairy products has registered highest ever growth of 32.1%, to achieve turnover of Rs. 18143.46 crores during 2013-14. Results of the apex body of dairy cooperatives in Gujarat were declared on 15th May 2014, in the 40th Annual General Meeting of GCMMF. The organization which symbolizes ‘taste of India’, managed to achieve impressive 23% cumulative average growth rate (CAGR) over the last six years by leveraging on several marketing and technological innovations as well as enhanced distribution reach. In fact, the group turnover of GCMMF and its constituent Member Unions, representing unduplicated turnover of all products sold under Amul brand was Rs. 25500 crores or US$ 4.2 Billion.

During the last four years, GCMMF has ensured 59% increase in milk procurement price to its farmers, resulting in 46% growth in milk procurement during the same period. By continuously offering most remunerative price for milk to its dairy farmers, GCMMF has incentivized them to enhance their investment towards increasing milk production.

The high growth in turnover is reflected in the remarkable performance of its various mega-brands. GCMMF achieved excellent growth in most of the value-added consumer packs. During 2013-14, Amul long-life UHT Milk had shown an impressive value growth of 40% and sales of Amul UHT Cream also increased by 37% in value terms. Amul’s innovative milk beverages range showed quantum value growth of 25%. In Ghee, their two mega-brands Amul & Sagar together achieved very impressive growth of 46% in value terms. Sales of Amul Butter and Amul Cheese achieved impressive 21% & 22% value growth respectively. Amul Fresh Milk sales increased by 23% as Amul became the leading brand of fresh milk in several major cities of India.

Shri Jethabhai Patel, who chaired the AGM, emphasized the fact that GCMMF will continue to progress with the same passion and commitment, with same values of integrity, efficiency and honesty which our founder Chairman, Dr. Kurien had instilled in our organization.

Commenting on the results, Shri RS Sodhi, Managing Director, GCMMF, informed that Amul has planned rapid expansion across its entire value-chain. “Expansion has been our mantra and will remain so in the coming years”, said the MD. He added, “In line with increase in our milk procurement, our processing capacities across all Member Unions have also been enhanced from 170 lakh litres per day to 232 lakh litres per day, in the last three years. Our new dairy projects in Amreli, Bharuch, Surendranagar, Kutch and Bhavnagar will help to further enhance our capacity. In the pipeline are new dairy projects at Rohtak, Faridabad, Kanpur, Lucknow and Kolkata. Once all these new plants are commissioned, our combined processing capacity will be enhanced by another 60 lakh litres per day”. The MD informed that Amul’s presence on Global Dairy Trade platform in which only the top six dairy players of the world sell their products, has earned respect and recognition across the world. “We will strive to make brand ‘India’, a formidable force in global dairy market”.

Shri Sodhi further informed that GCMMF plans to achieve turnover of Rs. 21600 crores in the year 2014-15. He expressed confidence that GCMMF will one day fulfill its destiny of becoming the largest dairy organization in the entire world and center of gravity for global dairy industry. Moving further ahead on the path of innovation, Amul plans to enhance & widen its product portfolio, based on demand and expectations of its loyal consumers.

Visit of women leaders from Afghanistan

A team of 25 women leaders from Afghanistan visited us. They were accompanied by volunteers from SEWA who work with them in Afghanistan and help them develop their own businesses. They visited us to understand more about the cooperative structure and its strength. They met Shri R S Sodhi, Managing Director and other Senior Officials of GCMMF and also shared their experiences.

Annual Kaizen Celebration

GCMMF's Head Office at Anand organized their 19th Annual Kaizen Celebration Day on 12th April, 2014. On 11th April employees shared their Best Kaizens of the year in front of the audience through PPTs/AVs. On 12th evening Kaizen Celebration was held with a cultural programme by employees and their children. During the function, the Best Kaizeners, Kaizen Coordinators, Kaizen King and Kaizen Princes were recognized through certificates and gifts. A Kaizen Dinner was also organized after the programme. This programme gave an opportunity for the employees and their families to interact with each other and build more relationship.