K Rathnam is new MD of Amul Dairy

Ratnam had joined Amul in 1995 as deputy manager

Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Limited in Anand popularly known as Amul Dairy, has appointed K Rathnam as its new managing director.  

Post the exit of former managing director Rahul Kumar Srivastava after a 22-year stint, the dairy on Tuesday named Rathnam, who has spent nearly 20 years with Amul Dairy in various capacities, as Kumar’s successor.

Ratnam holds a doctorate in food and nutrition, and had joined Amul in 1995 as deputy manager (product development). After a brief stint with a multinational firm as country head of quality assurance, he joined back Amul as general manager in the year 2007.

“He has conceived, executed some of the landmark projects with most modern technology in paneer and whey processing, thus developing value added products. A most modern dairy plant with robotic milk packing technology first time in India was set up in Virar, a suburb of Mumbai under his leadership,” a statement from Amul Dairy said.

Amul Dairy further said that Rathnam’s focus would be on new technologies, capacity expansion, new products, establishing manufacturing start-ups in foreign countries, increasing per-capita productivity of milch animals among others.

The dairy has registered a growth of 21 per cent and a turnover of Rs 3,440 crore in the last financial year, the statement said.

Amul Dairy’s outgoing managing director, Srivastava, left the organisation to head the Indian operations of the world’s largest dairy group, French player Le GroupeLactalis in Chennai.