Amul expands ice cream facility

Rohtak plant already has a milk and other fresh dairy products processing capacity of 1 mld a day

Leading dairy cooperative Gujarat Co-Operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF) which markets the popular Amul brand of milk and dairy products inaugurated a 100,000 litres per day ice cream manufacturing capacity at its Rohtak facility with an investment of Rs 125 crore.

The Rohtak plant already has a milk and other fresh dairy products processing capacity of 1 million litres per day. It will now have an additional ice cream manufacturing capacity of 100,000 litres per day.

Amul enjoys a 40% a market share in the ice creams market, which it claims is three times that of its nearest competitor. It is a national ice cream brand with presence in more than 1600 cities across India.

The investment of Rs. 125 crores has been made by Sabarkantha District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union Limited, Himmatnagar. This now takes Amul's ice cream capacity to 700,000 litres per day.

The new plant will mainly cater to the ice cream demand of consumers of North India market like Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, The plant shall be manufacturing entire range of Amul ice creams like Tricone, Sticks, Sundaes, Tubs and Take Home range.

Jethabhai Patel, who is Chairman, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. and also chairman, Sabarkantha District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union Limited, Himmatnagar inaugurated the facility.

R S Sodhi, managing director, GCMMF said that this expansion will help in increasing the growth in sales and market share of Amul ice cream, especially in the north.

GCMMF is India's largest food products marketing sales organisation with annual sales turnover of Rs 23,004 crore. It is a cooperative federation of 3.6 million milk producers affiliated to 18,000 village cooperative societies handling 17 million litres of milk every day.