abhishreshthaa
Abhijeet S
Interview with Mr. Himanshu Rathod – Co-operative Head of Amul, Mr. Sundaran – P.R Head and Mr. Jhala – Former General Manager at Amul (Anand, Gujarat).
Q. Sir, firstly we would like you to brief us about the history of Amul? How did it all start?
A. Started in the Kheda district where milk was available in high quantity. Polson diary was established in the 40’s then, this was the only company which provided milk in Bombay but the farmers in Kheda district were exploited by Polson as they were not paid the correct price for the milk. So they went on a strike for 15 days, they denied supply of milk to the Britishers so there was no milk in Bombay. This led them to form a co-operative with the help of some great leaders and there we had Amul established in 1946.
Q. How does the distribution of Amul function?
A. First is backward distribution where every village has a co-operative. The milk if first collected at the village level which is then reached to the district level and finally to the state level. And second in forward distribution where products after being processed at Amul, they are distributed toe the wholesalers, retailers, etc…
Q. What was the initial capital investment?
A. There was no such initial capital investment but some units of pasteurization was brought for 70,000 Rupees during the second world war so that could be considered as the initial investment.
Q. Does Amul face any competition from other dairy co-operatives ?
A. We do not compete with co-operative, we co-operate with the co-operatives. We compete with the MNC’s.
Q. Who are your measure markets?
A. We are spread all over the world except Europe reason being because they have set a standard for the amount of pesticides used in the cattle feed i.e. 0.03% and they do not allow to exceed it. However, our major markets are India, Gulf, US and other SAARC countries.
Q. What strategies will you deploy to achieve your goals?
A. Amul is an institution covering 13, 141 villages benefiting 2.7 million farmers and we would want this coverage to expand further with more farmers to join Amul. As far as business is concerned we would be handling more than twice the amount of milk and our sales turn-over would be nearly 20,000 crores.
Market studies shows that they are looking for healthier alternatives to carbonated soft drinks. In line with this, Amul has introduced a range of milk based products.
Q. How is the logistics of Amul carried out?
A. Basically there are two types of logistics. 1) Basic – procurement of the product. In India it is upto 5-6 hours otherwise it is 8 hours. In transportation system truck route which procures milk is reached to the nearest plant as milk is very critical to handle and gets spoiled soon so our transportation makes it quick to reach the market. Proper supply chain management is observed at Amul. Even today we maintain that the first supply should go to the defense.
Q. Hierarchy and functions of different departments?
A. We have more than 19 plants in Gujarat. We have our engineering department which is doing a good job bringing in new technologies. We have a computer networking department, to manage the farmers we have procurement department, administrative department, purchase department, entire technical planning for future, co-operative service department looks after the issues of the farmers, the laws set up for the co-operatives. The by-laws under that takes care of modifications, suggestions, filling in registration, board of directors, unions, implementation of various training. It also takes care of centralized improved system.
Q. Amul has got some of the best advertisements, do you emphasis more on TV advertisements and spend more on it?
A. No, we don’t. Yes we have the best of the advertisements but we hardly spend on it. We spend less than 5% of the total cost. We have entered the Guinness book of world record for the longest hoarding campaign.
We take care that the advertisement is simple and easy to understand by all age groups. And above all we believe in mouth-to-mouth publicity. And also there is always some full element in the ads.
Q. When you have such a variety pf products, how do you take care of the storage?
A. We have different storage section for different products. That makes it easier to store the products and not mix them and damage them. As I said before milk is very critical and it has to be brought to the plant on time and processed so as to avoid it from getting spoilt.
Storage is done in four types - Fresh which includes paneer etc, Chilled which includes butter milk and flavored milk, etc, third is frozen which includes ice-cream and fourth is Ambient like butter and cheese.
Q. Is there any other services that Amul provides that benefits the farmers and the entire environment in general?
A. We provide training and development to the farmers and education to women and children. Not only that, we have more than 140 veterians to look after the cattles, proper animal nutrition is provided. We believe in investing in the cattle then investing in land.
Amul has planted/grown 70 Lakhs trees.
Q. How does the HR department of Amul function?
A. Actually HR has not really develop din the dairy sector. We do not have a HR department yet we include it in the personnel management but we are slowly in the process to develop the HR department.
Q. What is the attrition rate in Amul?
A. We do not believe in something called attrition at Amul. We do not force people to stay back; we let them go if they want to. If people leave, they leave behind a chance for a new person, for a new idea, for a new thought. At the same time we do not mind people growing old with Amul.
Q. Where do you see Amul five years from now?
A. It has taken us a decade to one “zero” to our turn-over but now things are growing faster and we may end up reaching more than 20,000 crores.
Q. How has GCMMF managed to survive in the post Kurien era?
A. The true test as to how good one has built an institution can be judged from the performance of the institution, when one has left it. When Dr V Kurien was the head of the federation, obviously the federation progressed. But if he had genuinely built a strong value-based organization, it would flourish thereafter as well. The fact that the federation has grown from Rs 3,774 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 5,255 crore in 2007-08 exemplifies that he had built the federation on a very strong foundation. Pre- or post- Kurien, his Amul will remain as good and flourish.
Q. Sir, firstly we would like you to brief us about the history of Amul? How did it all start?
A. Started in the Kheda district where milk was available in high quantity. Polson diary was established in the 40’s then, this was the only company which provided milk in Bombay but the farmers in Kheda district were exploited by Polson as they were not paid the correct price for the milk. So they went on a strike for 15 days, they denied supply of milk to the Britishers so there was no milk in Bombay. This led them to form a co-operative with the help of some great leaders and there we had Amul established in 1946.
Q. How does the distribution of Amul function?
A. First is backward distribution where every village has a co-operative. The milk if first collected at the village level which is then reached to the district level and finally to the state level. And second in forward distribution where products after being processed at Amul, they are distributed toe the wholesalers, retailers, etc…
Q. What was the initial capital investment?
A. There was no such initial capital investment but some units of pasteurization was brought for 70,000 Rupees during the second world war so that could be considered as the initial investment.
Q. Does Amul face any competition from other dairy co-operatives ?
A. We do not compete with co-operative, we co-operate with the co-operatives. We compete with the MNC’s.
Q. Who are your measure markets?
A. We are spread all over the world except Europe reason being because they have set a standard for the amount of pesticides used in the cattle feed i.e. 0.03% and they do not allow to exceed it. However, our major markets are India, Gulf, US and other SAARC countries.
Q. What strategies will you deploy to achieve your goals?
A. Amul is an institution covering 13, 141 villages benefiting 2.7 million farmers and we would want this coverage to expand further with more farmers to join Amul. As far as business is concerned we would be handling more than twice the amount of milk and our sales turn-over would be nearly 20,000 crores.
Market studies shows that they are looking for healthier alternatives to carbonated soft drinks. In line with this, Amul has introduced a range of milk based products.
Q. How is the logistics of Amul carried out?
A. Basically there are two types of logistics. 1) Basic – procurement of the product. In India it is upto 5-6 hours otherwise it is 8 hours. In transportation system truck route which procures milk is reached to the nearest plant as milk is very critical to handle and gets spoiled soon so our transportation makes it quick to reach the market. Proper supply chain management is observed at Amul. Even today we maintain that the first supply should go to the defense.
Q. Hierarchy and functions of different departments?
A. We have more than 19 plants in Gujarat. We have our engineering department which is doing a good job bringing in new technologies. We have a computer networking department, to manage the farmers we have procurement department, administrative department, purchase department, entire technical planning for future, co-operative service department looks after the issues of the farmers, the laws set up for the co-operatives. The by-laws under that takes care of modifications, suggestions, filling in registration, board of directors, unions, implementation of various training. It also takes care of centralized improved system.
Q. Amul has got some of the best advertisements, do you emphasis more on TV advertisements and spend more on it?
A. No, we don’t. Yes we have the best of the advertisements but we hardly spend on it. We spend less than 5% of the total cost. We have entered the Guinness book of world record for the longest hoarding campaign.
We take care that the advertisement is simple and easy to understand by all age groups. And above all we believe in mouth-to-mouth publicity. And also there is always some full element in the ads.
Q. When you have such a variety pf products, how do you take care of the storage?
A. We have different storage section for different products. That makes it easier to store the products and not mix them and damage them. As I said before milk is very critical and it has to be brought to the plant on time and processed so as to avoid it from getting spoilt.
Storage is done in four types - Fresh which includes paneer etc, Chilled which includes butter milk and flavored milk, etc, third is frozen which includes ice-cream and fourth is Ambient like butter and cheese.
Q. Is there any other services that Amul provides that benefits the farmers and the entire environment in general?
A. We provide training and development to the farmers and education to women and children. Not only that, we have more than 140 veterians to look after the cattles, proper animal nutrition is provided. We believe in investing in the cattle then investing in land.
Amul has planted/grown 70 Lakhs trees.
Q. How does the HR department of Amul function?
A. Actually HR has not really develop din the dairy sector. We do not have a HR department yet we include it in the personnel management but we are slowly in the process to develop the HR department.
Q. What is the attrition rate in Amul?
A. We do not believe in something called attrition at Amul. We do not force people to stay back; we let them go if they want to. If people leave, they leave behind a chance for a new person, for a new idea, for a new thought. At the same time we do not mind people growing old with Amul.
Q. Where do you see Amul five years from now?
A. It has taken us a decade to one “zero” to our turn-over but now things are growing faster and we may end up reaching more than 20,000 crores.
Q. How has GCMMF managed to survive in the post Kurien era?
A. The true test as to how good one has built an institution can be judged from the performance of the institution, when one has left it. When Dr V Kurien was the head of the federation, obviously the federation progressed. But if he had genuinely built a strong value-based organization, it would flourish thereafter as well. The fact that the federation has grown from Rs 3,774 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 5,255 crore in 2007-08 exemplifies that he had built the federation on a very strong foundation. Pre- or post- Kurien, his Amul will remain as good and flourish.