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Amul
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This article is about the Indian dairy cooperative. For the ancient city of mul along the Oxus, see
Trkmenabat. For the city in Iran, see Amol.

Amul (Anand Milk Union Limited)

Amulcompany.jpg
Type
Cooperative
Industry Dairy/FMCG
Founded 1946
Headquarters Anand, Gujarat, India
Key people
Chairman, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF)
Products See complete products listing
Revenue Increase US$3.1 billion (201314)
Number of employees
750 employees of Marketing Arm. However, real pool consist of 3 million milk producer
members[1]
Slogan The Taste of India
Website www.amul.com

The Amul Plant at Anand showing the milk silos

Amul is an Indian dairy cooperative, based at Anand in the state of Gujarat, India.[2] The word
amul () is derived from the Sanskrit word amulya ( ), meaning rare, valuable .[3] The
co-operative was initially referred to as Anand Milk Federation Union Limited hence the name
AMUL.
Formed in 1946, it is a brand managed by a cooperative body, the Gujarat Co-operative Milk
Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF), which today is jointly owned by 3 million milk producers
in Gujarat.[4]
Amul spurred India's White Revolution, which made the country the world's largest producer of

milk and milk products.[5] In the process Amul became the largest food brand in India and has
ventured into markets overseas.
Dr Verghese Kurien, founder-chairman of the GCMMF for more than 30 years (19732006), is
credited with the success of Amul.[6]
HistoryEdit
Amul the co-operative registered on 1 December 1946 as a response to the exploitation of
marginal milk producers by traders or agents of the only existing dairy, the Polson dairy, in the
small city distances to deliver milk, which often went sour in summer, to Polson. The prices of
milk were arbitrarily determined. Moreover, the government had given monopoly rights to Polson
to collect milk from mikka and supply it to Bombay city.[7][8]
Angered by the unfair trade practices, the farmers of Kaira approached Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
under the leadership of local farmer leader Tribhuvandas K. Patel. He advised them to form a
cooperative and supply milk directly to the Bombay Milk Scheme instead of Polson (who did the
same but gave them low prices).[9] He sent Morarji Desai to organise the farmers. In 1946, the
milk farmers of the area went on a strike which led to the setting up of the cooperative to collect
and process milk.[8] Milk collection was decentralized, as most producers were marginal farmers
who could deliver, at most, 12 litres of milk per day. Cooperatives were formed for each village,
too.[10]
The cooperative was further developed and managed by Dr.Verghese Kurien with H.M. Dalaya.
Dalaya's innovation of making skim milk powder from buffalo milk (for the first time in the
world) and a little later, with Kurien's help, making it on a commercial scale,[11] led to the first
modern dairy of the cooperative at Anand, which would compete against established players in the
market.
The trio's (T. K. Patel, Kurien and Dalaya's) success at the cooperative's dairy soon spread to
Anand's neighbourhood in Gujarat. Within a short span, five unions in other districts Mehsana,
Banaskantha, Baroda, Sabarkantha and Surat were set up.[8] To combine forces and expand the
market while saving on advertising and avoid competing against each other, the GCMMF, an apex
marketing body of these district cooperatives, was set up in 1973. The Kaira Union, which had the
brand name Amul with it since 1955, transferred it to GCMMF.[12]
In 1999, it was awarded the "Best of all" Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award.[13]
Adding to the success, Dr. Madan Mohan Kashyap (faculty Agricultural and Engineering
Department, Punjab Agricultural University Ludhiana), Dr. Bondurant (visiting faculty) and Dr
Feryll (former student of Dr Verghese Kurien), visited the Amul factory in Gujarat as a research
team headed by Dr. Bheemsen. Shivdayal Pathak (ex-director of the Sardar Patel Renewable
Energy Research Institute) in the 1960s. A milk pasteurization system at the Research Centre of
Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) Ludhiana was then formed under the guidance of Kashyap.

About GCMMFEdit
Main article: GCMMF
The GCMMF is the largest food products marketing organisation of India. It is the apex
organisation of the dairy cooperatives of Gujarat. It is the exclusive marketing organisation for
products under the brand name of Amul and Sagar.[14] Over the last five and a half decades, dairy
cooperatives in Gujarat have created an economic network that links more than 3.1 million village
milk products with millions of consumers in India.[citation needed] The daily milk procurement of
GCMMF is around 13 million liters per day. It collects milk from about 16914 village milk
cooperative societies, 17 member unions and 24 districts covering about 3.18 million milk
producer members. More than 70% of the members are small or marginal farmers and landless
labourers including a sizeable population of tribal folk and people belonging to the scheduled
castes.[14]
The three-tier "Amul Model"Edit
The Amul Model is a three-tier cooperative structure. This structure consists of a dairy cooperative
society at the village level affiliated to a milk union at the district level which in turn is federated
into a milk federation at the state level. Milk collection is done at the village dairy society, milk
procurement and processing at the District Milk Union and milk and milk products marketing at
the state milk federation. The structure was evolved at Amul in Gujarat and thereafter replicated
all over the country under the Operation Flood programme. It is known as the 'Amul Model' or
'Anand Pattern' of dairy cooperatives.
The main functions of the VDCS are:
Collection of surplus milk from the producers of the village and payment based on quality and
quantity,
Providing support services to the members like veterinary first aid, artificial insemination services,
cattle-feed sales, mineral mixture sales, fodder and fodder seed sales, conducting training on
animal husbandry and dairying,
Selling liquid milk for local consumers of the village,
Supplying milk to the District Milk Union.
State Cooperative Milk Federation (Federation)
The main functions of the federation are as follows:
Marketing of milk and milk products processed/manufactured by Milk Unions,
Establish a distribution network for marketing of milk and milk products,
Arranging transportation of milk and milk products from the Milk Unions to the market,
Creating and maintaining a brand for marketing of milk & milk products,
Providing support services to the Milk Unions and members like technical inputs, management
support and advisory services,
Pooling surplus milk from the Milk Unions and supplying it to deficit Milk Unions,

Establish feeder-balancing dairy plants for processing the surplus milk of the Milk Unions,
Arranging for common purchase of raw materials used in manufacture/packaging of milk
products,
Decide on the prices of milk and milk products to be paid to Milk Unions,
Decide on the products to be manufactured at Milk Unions and capacity required for the same.
Conduct long-term milk production, procurement and processing as well as marketing planning.
Arranging finance for the Milk Unions and providing them technical know-how.
Designing and providing training in cooperative development and technical and marketing
functions.
Conflict resolution and keeping the entire structure intact.
Today, there are around 176 cooperative dairy unions formed by 125,000 dairy cooperative
societies, having a total membership of around 13 million farmers on the same pattern, who are
processing and marketing milk and milk products profitably, be it Amul in Gujarat or Verka in
Punjab, Vijaya in Andhra Pradesh, Milma in Kerala, Gokul in Maharashtra, Saras in Rajasthan or a
Nandini in Karnataka. This process has created more than 190 dairy processing plants spread all
over India with large investments by these farmers' institutions. These cooperatives today collect
approximately 23 million kg of milk per day and pay an aggregate amount of more than Rs. 125
billion to the milk producers in a year.[citation needed]
Impact of the "Amul Model"Edit
The effects of Operation Flood Programme are appraised by the World Bank in an evaluation
report. It has been proved that an investment of Rs. 20 billion over 20 years under Operation
Flood in the 1970s and 80s has contributed in increase of Indias milk production by 40 million
metric tonnes (MMT), i.e., from about 20 MMT pre-Operation Flood to more than 60 MMT at the
end of Operation Flood.
Thus, an incremental return of Rs. 400 billion annually have been generated by an investment of
Rs. 20 billion over 20 years. Indias milk production continues to increase and now stands at 90
MMT(as of 2012). Despite this fourfold increase in production, there has not been a drop in the
prices of milk during the period while production has continued to grow.
Due to this movement, the countrys milk production tripled between the years 1971 and 1996.
Similarly, the per capita milk consumption doubled from 111 gm per day in 1973 to 222 gm per
day in 2000.
The Amul brand
GCMMF (AMUL) has the largest distribution network for any FMCG company. It has nearly 50
sales offices spread all over the country, more than 5000 wholesale dealers and more than 700000
retailers.
Amul became the world's largest vegetarian cheese[15] and the largest pouched-milk brand.
AMUL is also the largest exporter of dairy products in the country. AMUL is available today in

over 40 countries of the world. AMUL is exporting a wide variety of products which include
whole and skimmed milk powder, cottage cheese (Paneer), UHT milk, clarified butter (Ghee) and
indigenous sweets.
The major markets are USA, West Indies, and countries in Africa, the Gulf Region, and SAARC
neighbours, Singapore, The Philippines, Thailand, Japan and China, and others such as Mauritius,
Australia, Hong Kong and a few South African countries. Its bid to enter the Japanese market in
1994 did not succeed, but it plans to venture again.[16]
In September 2007, Amul emerged as the leading Indian brand according to a survey by Synovate
to find out Asia's top 1000 Brands.[17]
In 2013, Amul was named the Most Trusted brand in the Food and Beverages sector in The Brand
Trust Report, published by Trust Research Advisory,[18] where as in the 2014 edition of The
Brand Trust Report,[19] Amul is ranked 7th in the list of India's Most Trusted Food and Beverages
brands.
ProductsEdit
Amul's product range includes milk powders, milk, butter, ghee, cheese, Masti Dahi, Yoghurt,
Buttermilk, chocolate, ice cream, cream, shrikhand, paneer, gulab jamuns, flavoured milk,
basundi, Amul Pro brand and others. Amul PRO is a recently launched brown beverage just like
bournevita and horlicks offering whey protein, DHA and essential nutrients. In January 2006,
Amul launched India's first sports drink, Stamina, which competes with Coca Cola's Powerade and
PepsiCo's Gatorade.[20]
Amul offers mithaimate which competes with Milkmaid by Nestle by offering more fat at lower
price.
In August 2007, Amul introduced Kool Koko, a chocolate milk brand extending its product
offering in the milk products segment. Other Amul brands are Amul Kool, a low-calorie thirst
quenching drink; Masti Butter Milk; and Kool Cafe, ready to drink coffee.
Amul's icecreams are made from milk fat and thus are icecreams in real sense of the word, while
many brands in India sell frozen desserts made from vegetable fat.
Amul's sugar-free Pro-Biotic Ice-cream won The International Dairy Federation Marketing Award
for 2007.[citation needed]
UHT products and impactEdit
Over the years Amul has been witnessing strong growth in this portfolio,with the segment growing
at 53%,[21] as a result of growing consumer awareness and demand for good quality milk,the
urban population has especially been showing great interest in long life UHT products like Amul

Taaza,which are packed in Tetra Pak cartons,which undergoes UHT treatment to remove all
harmful microorganisms while retaining the nutrition in the milk.Today Amul sells around 4500,000 litres of UHT milk and other value added products per day and forecast this demand to
continue growing at 25%.The UHT products have enabled Amul to position itself as the market
leader in packaged milk segment by penetrating the deeper and vast markets by maintaining long
shelf life of milk,without the need of maintaining cold supply chains.[22]
Any Time Milk (ATM) MachineEdit
Amul has installed a "Any Time Milk" machine which dispenses a 300-ml pouch of fresh milk for
Rs
10, at Anand's Amul Dairy. As a first step, Amul plans to
install six such ATMs in Anand itself. According to Rahul
Kumar, MD of Amul Dairy, Amul wants to add a whole
range of dairy products, which could be dispensed through
these machines.[23]
AdvertisingEdit

An Amul butter ad on Pakistan's Kargil War fiasco. The image shows the "Amul baby" between
George Fernandes and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
In 1966, Amul hired Sylvester, then managing director of the advertising agency AS to design an
ad campaign for Amul Butter. daCunha designed a campaign as series of hoardings with topical
ads, relating to day-to-day issues.[24] It was popular and earned a Guinness world record for the
longest running ad campaign in the world. In the 1980s, cartoon artist Kumar Morey and script
writer Bharat Dabholkar had been involved with sketching the Amul ads; the latter rejected the
trend of using celebrities in advertisement campaigns.r credited chairman Verghese Kurien with
creating a free atmosphere that fostered the development of the ads.[25]
Despite encountering political pressure on several occasions, daCunha's agency has made it a
policy of not backing down. Some of the more controversial Amul ads include one commenting on
the Naxalite uprising in West Bengal, on the Indian Airlines employees strike, and one depicting
the Amul butter girl wearing a Gandhi cap.[24]
In 2013, Amul tweeted a picture featuring the Amul butter girl, implying that 'freedom of choice'
died in '2013', in opposition to the Supreme Court of India overruling the judgment of Delhi High
Court and criminalising homosexuality again.[26]
Amul hired DraftFCB+Ulka for the brands of Amul milk, chocolates, paneer, ghee, ice-cream.

In popular cultureEdit
The establishment of Amul is known as White Revolution.
The White Revolution inspired the notable Indian film-maker Shyam Benegal to base his film
Manthan (1976) on it. It starred Smita Patil, Girish Karnad, Naseeruddin Shah and Amrish Puri.
The film was financed by over five lakh rural farmers in Gujarat who contributed Rs 2 each to its
budget. Upon its release, these farmers went in truckloads to watch 'their' film, making it a
commercial success.[27][28] Manthan was chosen for the 1977 National Film Award for Best
Feature Film in Hindi.