Amul starts selling food items under Amul Green

The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation has set up a retail outlet and restaurant at Anand near Amul Diary

Dairy cooperative giant Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) has set up a retail outlet and restaurant over a 5,800 square feet area at Anand near Amul Dairy.

Confirming the development, a first for the company, GCMMF managing director R S Sodhi said they had space available at the spot, and thought of experimenting with the set-up. “It is still a small format there. We would also be selling pulses, spices, grains, oil etc. under the Amul Green brand from that store,” he said.

Sodhi added the restaurant (named Amul Foodland) is a quick service one and it would serve items like burgers and patties. While some see this as Amul’s tryst with modern retail, Sodhi clarified that as of now there were no plans of replicating the same in other regions.

The area was previously rented to a restaurant.

The retail outlet would sell around 6,500 items including food and other products. The cooperative is selling food items like oil, nuts, spices, grains and pulses under the Amul Green brand at the retail outlet. These are being procured in bulk by the cooperative and are packaged and sold under the Amul Green brand. The idea is to procure directly from farmers so that they get better prices for their produce.

Amul officials said on an average a turnover of Rs 8 lakh per day was expected at the retail outlet and restaurant.

GCMMF is India’s largest food products marketing organisation. It registered a 67 per cent rise in its turnover to Rs 23,004 crore during FY16. It has, in fact, grown by 187 per cent in the past six years, which implies a cumulative average growth rate of 19.2 per cent during the period. The group turnover of GCMMF and its constituent member unions, representing unduplicated turnover of all products, sold under the Amul brand was Rs 33,000 crore ($5 billion).

Rapidly moving up the global rankings, Amul is now ranked as the world’s 13th largest dairy organisation, according to data released by the International Farm Comparison Network. Amul is ranked well ahead of other dairy firms such as Land O’Lakes & Schreiber Foods of the US, Muller of Germany, Groupe Sodiaal of France and Mengniu of China.

Earlier this week, Amul was listed India’s most attractive food and beverage (F&B) brand out of 156 brands in the super category in the “Attractiveness — India’s Most Attractive Brands Report” by TRA Research. It climbed 31 ranks over last year and rose to become India’s 32nd most attractive brand this year, leapfrogging top F&B brands like Pepsi, Nestlé, Britannia and Coca-Cola.