Amul’s new Managing Director (MD), Jayen Mehta, stated that the company is expanding its selection of non-dairy products and is working towards being a full-service food and beverage provider.
In an interview, Mehta claimed it would boost India’s top dairy brand in competing with Nestle, Britannia, Coca-Cola, and ITC. “Dairy remains our core, but we have a robust pipeline of growth; we want to straddle every foods category consumers use in the kitchen, and we are going about it with speed, scale and larger investments,” he said.
Amul is a Rs 61,000 crore brand and is owned by Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation. The company has identified categories to accelerate with speed and scale. They include frozen foods, organic foods, non-dairy beverages, snacks, pulses, cookies, and edible oil. Amul is also setting up “Ice Lounge” parlours for premium ice creams.
Some FMCG companies in India recently announced plans to expand their product lines and product categories. Britannia and the French cheese manufacturer, Bel SA, announced a joint venture in November of last year. Moreover, Nestle and ITC have made strategies to promote manufacturing and innovation growth.
“We are not worried about competition, since more players help in building products and categories. Having said that, we have to compete…we are competing with Coca-Cola with products like seltzers, with Britannia in cheese and cookies, with ITC in staples, and so on,” Mehta said.
Mehta stated that it was “imperative” because “the cost of feed and fodder is a direct expense to the farmer” in response to the record-high inflation in the dairy industry and three price increases in the previous year.
In addition, he added, “crop failure and unseasonal rainfall are elements that are not even represented in topline inflation estimates. The Amul model, he continued, has the potential to become global.
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