homebusiness Newscompanies NewsAmul’s MD Jayen Mehta charts aggressive expansion plans, identifies new high growth categories to double business
Amul’s MD Jayen Mehta charts aggressive expansion plans, identifies new high-growth categories to double business
One of Amul’s larger focuses is the category of protein, where Managing Director Jayen Mehta says, the company has a large advantage. India currently imports over Rs 10,000-15,000 crore worth of whey protein – raw material for protein.
Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which markets milk products under the Amul brand has identified 6-8 new categories to help drive its ambitions of growing over 20 percent over the next few years, Amul’s new Managing Director Jayen Mehta told CNBC-TV18 in an exclusive chat. These categories include some of its recent forays such as protein, probiotics, Organic food products, among others.
“At the current rate, if our turnover is about $9 billion, we need to identify multiple billion-dollar categories to grow amidst the kind of opportunity that exists,” Mehta said.
One of Amul’s larger focuses is the category of protein, where Mehta says, the company has a large advantage. India currently imports over Rs 10,000-15,000 crore worth of whey protein – raw material for protein – and Mehta says as the largest manufacturer of cheese and paneer in India, GCMMF has close to 25-30 lakh litres of cheese whey every day at its disposal.
The company plans to use this to make high-protein products. While it already sells protein buttermilk and lassi, it plans to expand this to high-protein yogurt, shakes, milk, chocolates, cookies, ice-cream, among others.
“So everything you consume in your day, you can consume in a high protein format at an affordable price,” Mehta adds.
Probiotics is another category that the company is betting on. The company has already launched probiotic ice-creams, yogurt, etc and Mehta says the company has now also converted its entire range of buttermilk pouches – 38 lakh litres produced across its dairy plants every day –into probiotic buttermilk to make it available as a mass market product.
Mehta adds that Organic food products is another major area of focus for Amul, after it entered the space last year, initially producing and selling only in Gujarat. The company currently has 8-10 products in this category including organic atta, pulses, rice, etc, across 6-8 states.
It now is expanding this into organic spices, sugar, jaggery, tea, among others. The idea, Mehta says, is to have nearly every item found in a consumer’s kitchen available in an organic form under the Amul brand.
Other high-growth categories identified by the company include Indian sweets, Frozen foods, where it is expanding its capacity and product range, seltzers and energy drinks as well. With the government push for millets, Amul is also eyeing this area and is working on a recipe to manufacture ice-cream cones using certified millets.
The larger strategy, Mehta says, is to strengthen Amul as an FMCG brand, and grow at over 20 percent to clock a turnover of Rs 66,000 crore for FY24 and touch a turnover of Rs 1 lakh crore by 2025.
The confidence in Amul’s growth, Mehta says, comes from the shift India has seen from the unorganised to organised and branded products, especially post the pandemic.
“Even if 5 percent of Indians shift from loose to packaged branded dairy, it's an opportunity to serve another 3 crore customers in the organised sector. Now this is the great tailwind for the sector. And that's the direction we are working on,” Mehta says.
To capitalise on this, he says, Amul currently produces around 270 lakh litres per day, but has capacities of about 450 lakh litres per day, which is plans to expand to more than 500 litres per day in the next year or two.
“So massive expansion is going on across all products, all categories. And we want to leverage on these tailwinds, which can give us an opportunity to maybe double our business at a pace which we have never had in the past,” Mehta adds.
(Edited by : Sangam Singh)
First Published: Apr 11, 2023 10:32 PM IST
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