GUJARAT CO-OPERATIVE MILK MARKETING FEDERATION LTD.

(GCMMF)

A Case Study..

Every morning, across India, millions wake up to the taste of Amul, the flagship brand name for a variety of dairy products marketed by the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF).

Background for GCMMF

In the 1940s, farmers in Gujarat had to sell their milk either to private milk contractors or to the single private dairy - Polson's Dairy. Polson's used to collect, chill and supply milk to the Bombay Milk Scheme(Distributer in Bombay).

Polson's Dairy used its monopoly position and paid them very low prices.
In 1945, Nationalist leader Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Tribhuvandas Patel, a farmer and social worker in Khaira District, began organizing dairy farmers into cooperatives, which sell directly to the Bombay Milk Scheme.

 In 1946, the milk producers formed Khaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Ltd (KDCMPUL) to deal directly with the final buyer. KDCMPUL functioned at the district level and Village Cooperative Societies(VCS) at the village level By June 1948, KDCMPUL started pasteurizing milk so that it could be supplied to Bombay
The milk collection in Khaira increased from 250 to 5,000 liters a day.

 In 1949, a dairy engineer, named Dr. Verghese Kurien from Dairy Research Institute at Anand joined the KDCMPUL.

Firstly, the main activity was collection and processing of the milk brought everyday by the member farmers to the local office of the co-operative.
But it was soon realized that it was not enough to act as the collection and selling agents for the farmers. A variety of support services were given to the farmers. But all these were strictly on payment basis: none of the services were Free.

 By now the corporative revolution moved out from Khaira to all over Gujarat by following Anand Pattern. KDCMPUL is marketed their products under the brand name of Amul (Priceless in Sanskrit) 1954- ------Built first processing plant to make milk powder and butter. 1958-------- Cheese and Baby food products were added to the product line.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

Tribhuvandas Patel

Dr. Verghese Kurien

GUJARAT CO-OPERATIVE MILK MARKETING FEDERATION LTD.

(GCMMF)
The district level milk unions became its shareholders. 250 litres per day in 1946 -------------- 4 million litres per day by 1999 with 12 dairy plants all over the State of Gujarat.

The Anand Pattern

Three tiered structured Milk Producers
[All milk producers in a village, 2.1 million in Gujarat, 9.31 million in India ]

Village Co-operative Societies

[All villages in a district, 72,774 villages in India ]

District Milk Processing Unions

[Every district in the state ,12 district unions in Gujarat, 170 unions all over India]

State Marketing Federation

[All dairies in the State (GCMMF in Gujarat),22 State Federations in India]

MD

GM(Mktng) Mktng of dairy products, liquid milk, ice-cream

GM (HRD) Admin, Legal matters, New Opp, Edible oil

GM (Qlty) Assuring quality

AGM

AGM

AGM

Manager Commercial, export & liquid milk

Manager

Manager

Sales officers/field sales persons BM

Zonal Mgr 1

Zonal Mgr 5

India

Zonal Mgr 2

Sales officers/ field sales persons

BM

Zonal Mgr 4

Zonal Mgr 3

BM

Sales officers/ field sales persons

*There were 48 sales offices spread over the country(two were in Gujarat) and one overseas office, at Dubai

Objectives & philosophy

Main objective, carrying out activities for the economic development of agriculturists by efficiently organizing marketing of milk and dairy produce, veterinary medicines, vaccines and other animal health products, agricultural produce in raw and/or processed form and other allied produce. This was to be done through: Common branding Centralized marketing Centralized quality control Purchases and Pooling of milk efficiently GCMMF had declared, as its business philosophy, the following: To serve the interests of milk producers To provide quality products that offer the best value to consumers for money spent.

Diversification

Diversification
Non milk product diversification Edible oil (DHARA)
[60% of groundnut produced by Gujrat] GCMMF marketed this oil on behalf of NDDB
Dhara, Shudh Dhara

Fruit Product (SAFAL) GCMMF undertook distribution of fruit based product on behalf of NDDB. [Mango drink,Tomato ketchup,Mixed fruit jam]

 of 4.6 million liters of milk/day about 2.2 million liters were sold as liquid milk and the rest as milk products.
% of GCMMFs total income (Rs.18 billion )

Rest 33%

(5.85 bn)

Liquid Milk (2.75 bn) 15%

(3.0 bn) Edible Oil

17%
(2.4 bn) (4.0 bn)

Ice Cream 13%

Butter 22%

The share of processed fruits and vegetable items was still quite small

Market Share
The nature of competition varied among the different products

Amul brand was the market leader in each and every one of its products (except ice creams, chocolate and chocolate-based beverages)

GCMMF: PRODUCT PORTFOLIO

Category Liquid Milk Butter Market Position 1 1

Milk Powder
Cheese Sweets Ice Creams Chocolates Chocolate Drinks

1
1 1 2 3 4

WOT Analysis..

The biggest strength of GCMMF was the trust it had created in the minds of its consumers regarding the quality of its products.
Main objective
Common branding Centralized marketing

Centralized quality control

Purchases and
Pooling of milk efficiently

WOT Analysis..

The profit margin in milk was generally low, due to the need to keep down the price of this essential commodity.
NDDB and GCMMF had, as one of their important objectives promotion of milk consumption, especially by the poorer people. Edible oils were also low margin items, their sales prices being controlled rigidly by the government and input prices being essentially set by the oil traders.

SW

T Analysis..

The milk consumption in India in 1999 at about 225 grams per day was still way below that in developed countries and even less than in many developing countries. It was expected that by the year 2011-12, the milk production in India would reach 180.76 million tons. The variation in availability between rural and urban areas was strikingly high: 121 grams vs. 400 grams per day.

Opportunities abounded in the market, both domestic as well as export.

GCMMF had been making major efforts to make its brand known in many countries, including U.S.A., where it had entered into an alliance with Kanan Dairy . It had established offices and agencies in New Zealand, Gulf, Sri Lanka and Australia.

SWO

Analysis..

Consumers were generally not very particular about the brand of liquid milk. There was also competition from newly emerging private dairies that had started supplying milk to the consumers as well as sweet makers.

For butter and cheese, Britannia had introduced new forms of cheese such as cheddar cheese slices, and supported its products with extensive advertising campaigns. Other food companies such as Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (HUL), and Nestl had also entered into the business of ready made or near ready sweets . These were advertised and heavily promoted through campaigns such as through mail orders to housewives.

Advertisement and Promotion

GCMMF had shown itself to be remarkably savvy in its advertisement and promotion campaigns. A campaign titled The Taste of India for all its products, featuring Indian recipes and life style. It had coined truly memorable slogans such as the one for butter: Utterly Butterly Delicious Amul; for edible oils: Dhara, Shudh Dhara, emphasizing its purity

 It was the first Indian company to put up advertisement hoardings (bill boards) [started in 1967] based on a topical and current news item that almost brought traffic to a stop. The hoardings,were changed weekly and every week it had a current and a new theme

 GCMMF sponsored television programmes as well.

GCMMF had sponsored two well-received feature films

GCMMF and Its Programme for Management of Change

They realized that, they had to become more customer centered rather than merely being farmer or supplier centered.
This required paying close attention to the customer needs and quality. Hence it launched a Total Quality Management

I am confident in the next twenty

five years we will transform the lives of millions more, opening for them the door to an India ,that is the land of our dreams.
Dr. Verghese Kurien Chairman, GCMMF

Thank You..