1. Amul
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This article is about the Indian dairy cooperative. For the ancient city of Āmul along the Oxus,
see Türkmenabat. For the city in Iran, see Amol.
Amul
Cooperative
Type
1946
Founded
Headquarters Anand, India
Chairman, Gujarat Co-operative Milk
Key people
Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF)
Dairy
Industry
See complete products listing.
Products
$1.33 billion USD (in 2007-08)
Revenue
2.41 million milk producers
Employees
http://www.amul.com/
Website
Amul (Anand Milk Union Limited), formed in 1946, is a dairy cooperative movement in India.
It is a brand name managed by an apex cooperative organisation, Gujarat Co-operative Milk
Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF), which today is jointly owned by some 2.6 million milk
producers in Gujarat, India[1].
AMUL is based in Anand, Gujarat and has been a sterling example of a co-operative
organization's success in the long term. It is one of the best examples of co-operative
achievement in the developing world. quot;Anyone who has seen ... the dairy cooperatives in the

2. state of Gujarat, especially the highly successful one known as AMUL, will naturally wonder
what combination of influences and incentives is needed to multiply such a model a thousand
times over in developing regions everywhere.quot;[2] The Amul Pattern has established itself as a
uniquely appropriate model for rural development. Amul has spurred the White Revolution of
India, which has made India the largest producer of milk and milk products in the world. It is
also the world's biggest vegetarian cheese brand [3].
Amul is the largest food brand in India and world's Largest Pouched Milk Brand with an annual
turnover of US $1050 million (2006-07) [4]. Currently Amul has 2.6 million producer members
with milk collection average of 10.16 million litres per day. Besides India, Amul has entered
overseas markets such as Mauritius, UAE, USA, Bangladesh, Australia, China, Singapore, Hong
Kong and a few South African countries. Its bid to enter Japanese market in 1994 had not
succeeded, but now it has fresh plans of flooding the Japanese markets [5]. Other potential
markets being considered include Sri Lanka.
Dr Verghese Kurien, former chairman of the GCMMF, is recognised as the man behind the
success of Amul. On 10 Aug 2006 Parthi Bhatol, chairman of the Banaskantha Union, was
elected chairman of GCMMF.
500 gram pack of Amul Cheese
100 gram pack of Amul Butter
Contents

3. 1 History
o 1.1 Situation of farmers
o 1.2 Setting up of Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union
o 1.3 Setting Up of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation
2 GCMMF Today
3 Products
4 Mascot
5 Advertising
6 Other Players
7 In Popular Culture
8 References
9 External links
[edit] History
Amul was formally registered on December 14, 1946. The brand name Amul, sourced from the
Sanskrit word Amoolya, means priceless. It was suggested by a quality control expert in Anand
and it was chosen because it was a perfect acronym for Anand Milk Union Limited.
The Amul revolution was started as awareness among the farmers. It grew and matured into a
protest movement that was channeled towards economic prosperity.
[edit] Situation of farmers
Over five decades ago, the life of an average farmer in Kheda District was very much like that of
his/her counterpart anywhere else in India. His/her income was derived almost entirely from
seasonal crops. The income from milk buffaloes was undependable. Milk producers had to travel
long distances to deliver milk to the only dairy, the Polson Dairy in Anand – often milk went
sour, especially in the summer season, as producers had to physically carry milk in individual
containers. Private traders and middlemen controlled the marketing and distribution system for
the milk. These middlemen decided the prices and the off-take from the farmers by the season.
As milk is perishable, farmers were compelled to sell it for whatever they were offered. Often,
they had to sell cream and ghee at throw-away prices. In this situation, the private trader made a
killing. Moreover, the government at that time had given monopoly rights to Polson Dairy,
which was run by a person of Parsi descent, (around that time Polson was the most well known
butter brand in the country) to collect milk from Anand and supply to Mumbai city in turn (about
400 kilometers away). Another problem farmers faced was that in winter the milk output of
buffaloes doubled which caused prices to fall down even further. India ranked nowhere amongst
milk producing countries in the world in 1946. Gradually, the realization dawned on the farmers
with inspiration from then nationalist leaders Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (who later became the
first Home Minister of free India) and Morarji Desai (who later become the Prime Minister of
India) and local farmer, freedom fighter and social worker Tribhovandas Patel, that the
exploitation by the trader could be checked only if they marketed their milk themselves. Amul
was the result of the realization that they could pool up their milk and work as a cooperative.

4. [edit] Setting up of Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union
The Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union Limited (KDCMPUL) began
pasteurizing milk for the Bombay Milk Scheme in June 1948. By the end of 1948, more than 400
farmers joined in more Village Society, and the quantity of milk handled by one Union increased
from 250 to 5,000 liters a day. Meanwhile, Dr. Verghese Kurien, fed up being at the government
creamery in Anand, Gujarat, which held no challenge, volunteered to help Shri Tribhovandas
Patel, the Chairman of KDCMPUL, in setting up a processing plant. This marked the birth of
AMUL in 1946. The success of Amul was instrumental in launching the White Revolution that
resulted in increased milk production in India. It is officially termed as Operation Flood by
Amul. The breakthrough technology of spray-drying and processing buffalo milk, developed by
Mr. H.M. Dalaya, was one of the key factors that contributed to the Revolution.
[edit] Setting Up of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation
In 1954, Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union built a plant to convert surplus milk
produced in the cold seasons into milk powder and butter. In 1958, a plant to manufacture cheese
and one to produce baby food were added. Subsequent years saw the addition of more plants to
produce different products. In 1973, the milk societies/district level unions decided to set up a
marketing agency to market their products. This agency was the Gujarat Cooperative Milk
Marketing Federation (GCMMF). It was registered as a co-operative society on 9 July 1973.
[edit] GCMMF Today
GCMMF is India's largest food products marketing organisation. It is a state level apex body of
milk cooperatives in Gujarat, which aims to provide remunerative returns to the farmers and also
serve the interest of consumers by providing quality products, which are good value for money.
GCMMF markets and manages the Amul brand. From mid-1990's Amul has entered areas not
related directly to its core business. Its entry into ice cream was regarded as successful due to the
large market share it was able to capture within a short period of time - primarily due to the price
differential and the brand name. It also entered the Pizza business, where the base and the recipes
were made available to restaurant owners who could price it as low as 30 rupees per pizza when
the other players were charging upwards of 100 rupees.
In September 2007, Amul emerged as the leading Indian brand according to a survey by
Synovate to find out Asia's top 1000 Brands. [6]
[edit] Products
Amul's product range includes milk powders, milk, butter, ghee, cheese, curd, chocolate, ice
cream, cream, shrikhand, paneer, gulab jamuns, basundi, Nutramul brand and others. In January
2006, Amul plans to launch India's first sports drink Stamina, which will be competing with
Coca Cola's Powerade and PepsiCo's Gatorade [7].

5. 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; Kool Cafe, ready to drink coffee and India's first sports
drink Stamina.
Amul's sugar-free Pro-Biotic Ice-cream won The International Dairy Federation Marketing
Award for 2007.
[edit] Mascot
Since 1967[8] Amul products' mascot has been the very recognisable quot;Amul babyquot; (a chubby
butter girl usually dressed in polka dotted dress) showing up on hoardings and product wrappers
with the equally recognisable tagline Utterly Butterly Delicious Amul.The mascot was first used
for Amul butter. But in recent years in a second wave of ad campaign for Amul products, she has
also been used for other product like ghee and milk.
Currently Amul is in the process of getting the Amul Girl registered as the oldest ad campaign in
the Guinness Book Of World Records. Although there seems to be no competition for this
mascot, Amul Corporation is still doing further research to confirm their claim.
[edit] Advertising
An Amul butter ad on Pakistan's Kargil War fiasco. The image shows the quot;Amul babyquot; in
between George Fernandes and Vajpayee.
Its advertising has also started using tongue-in-cheek sketches starring the Amul baby
commenting jovially on the latest news or current events. The pun in her words has been popular.
The Amul ads are one of the longest running ads based on a theme, now vying for the Guinness
records for being the longest running ad campaign ever. Sylvester daCunha, was the managing
director of the advertising agency, ASP, that created the campaign in 1967 whose charm has
endured fickle public opinion, gimmickry and all else.
[edit] Other Players
Amul has been able to withstand the onslaught of private and foreign players in the dairy
industry and has also been able to export products in limited quantities. The success of Amul
resulted in similar organizations being setup by state governments throughout India, most of

6. which had reasonable success. Examples are Milma in Kerala, Vijaya in Andhra Pradesh, Aavin
in Tamil Nadu ,K.M.F ( Nandini ) in Karnataka, Sudha in Bihar,Omfed in Orissa and others.
Other co-operative rivals of Amul include National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) (with its
Mother Dairy and Sugam brands). With Amul entering the sports drink market, its rivals now
include Coca Cola and PepsiCo.
[edit] In Popular Culture
The establishment of Amul is also known as White Revolution. The White Revolution of India
inspired the notable Indian film-maker Shyam Benegal to base his film Manthan (1976) on it.
The film starred Smita Patil, Girish Karnad, Naseeruddin Shah and Amrish Puri. The film itself
was financed by over five lakh rural farmers in Gujarat who contributed Rs 2 each to the film'š
budget. Upon its release, these same farmers went in truckloads to watch 'their' film, making it a
commercial success.[9][10], the film was chosen for the 1977 National Film Award for Best
Feature Film in Hindi.
The White Revolution ushered an era of plenty from a measly amount of milk production and
distribution. Aside from the great measurable success that this project was, it also demonstrated
the power of quot;collective mightquot;. A small set of poor farmers of Kheda district in Gujarat had the
vision and foresight to act in a way that was good for the society and not for the self alone.
[edit] References
1. ^ The Amul Story - General Management Review
2. ^ Alexander Fraser Laidlaw. Cooperatives and the Poor. A development study prepared for the
International Cooperative Alliance and the Canadian International Development Agency, 1977.
3. ^ Economic Times
4. ^ Amul's sales turnover
5. ^ Amul hopes to flow into Japanese market
6. ^
http://www.synovate.com/news/article/extra/20070824/Asia's%20Top%201000%20brands%20fa
ct%20sheet.pdf
7. ^ Amul ready to take on Pepsi, Coke in sports drink segment
8. ^ The Amul Mascot Story - Amul's website
9. ^ NDTV movies NDTV.
10. ^ Shyam Benegal at ucla.net South Asia Studies, University of California, Los Angeles(UCLA).
[edit] External links
Official website
History of Amul
amul.tv
[1]
Collection of Amul's Tv Commercials

7. Retrieved from quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amulquot;
Categories: Cooperatives in India | Companies established in 1946 | Companies based in Gujarat
| Ice cream brands | Economy of Gujarat | Dairy products companies in India | Indian brands
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8. This page was last modified on 9 February 2009, at 03:18.
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