Anand: Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), one of India''s greatest success stories with its Amul brand, is now aiming at a 17-per cent growth in sales to Rs 3,200 crore this fiscal against sales of Rs 2,746 crore in the previous year ended 31 March 2003.

The federation is expecting each of its products to contribute higher sales this year as new products are being added to each product line.

The big hope is not surprisingly the Amul brand of ice-creams, which is expected to contribute Rs 250 crore to the turnover, up from Rs 150 crore last year. Says GCMMF managing director B M Vyas: "Last year we saw a good growth in ice-cream, cheese, butter and ghee. We are planning to launch new products in almost every line that we are in, with specific stress on ice-creams."

For its ice-cream and milk business, GCMMF has begun investing in increasing its milk capacity. It recently firmed up plans to invest Rs 100-120 crore to expand this from 1.1 million litres a day to 1.8 million litre a day at its Gandhinagar factory. The investment will take place over the next two years.

The cooperative is also planning to expand its production facilities beyond Gujarat to service other regions in India. GCMMF recently bought an ice-cream manufacturing unit in Nagpur and is installing a dairy unit alongside. Through this unit, the organisation has also extended its milk supply to over 10 cities spread over Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Amul is now focusing on its supply system. Efforts are on to ensure greater availability of Amul ice-cream at pushcarts and small outlets. The company feels that availability is the most important factor in ice cream sales. Thus, Amul ice-cream can be found in ''just around the corner shops,'' local STD booths, local kirana shops, chemists and bakers, who stock the ice-cream in deep freezers.

The idea is to ensure visibility and availability, which more often than not ensures a sale as ice-cream consumed out of home is most often an impulsive purchase. For ensuring a presence in southern India, the cooperative has tie-ups with various state marketing federations in that region. For production of ice-creams it is considering expanding the agreements with other state-cooperatives as well.

Amul expects to clock sales of 34 million litres during the current year and the accent will be on offering ''value for money'' products.

The new ice-creams to be launched from Amul this year include a mega-bite almond cone (the largest volume cone in the country), an orange ice-cream (Santra Mantra), a Bouncer ice-cream with nuts and essential proteins, vitamins and minerals for the growing children, a cheese ice-cream and a sundae in cone for kids in different variants.

Both Amul and Hindustan Lever''s (HLL) Kwality Walls claim to be the largest selling ice-cream brands in India. While HLL quotes a market research study by AC Nielson, which puts Kwality Walls at the No 1 spot, an independent study by Ahmedabad-based Consumer Education and Research Society (CERS) ranks Amul as No 1, followed by Kwality Walls (among four brands including Vadilal and four loose samples) on various parameters of taste, melting quality, weight, fat and sugar content.

Amul ice-cream is positioned as ''real ice-cream'' made from real milk cream, while HLL''s Kwality Walls is made from vegetable oil and its items are dubbed as Frozen Deserts.

Last year, Amul ice-cream made its entry into New Delhi, India''s biggest ice-cream market, where its anti-compete agreement with Mother Dairy has expired. Amul has been sourcing its entire ice-cream requirement for the northern market (including Delhi) from its own Gandhinagar plant.