Amul scouts for alliances in Delhi NCR to increase capacity

Another player gearing u
02 December 2003

New Delhi: The recent activities of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), Paras Dairy and Britannia in the Delhi market indicate that Mother Dairy, the leader of the milk market in the capital, will soon have a fight on its hands to retain its leadership position here.

Delhi National Capital Region (NCR), among the biggest milk markets in the country, is dominated by Mother Dairy currently. Amul and NDDB's non-compete agreement has prevented the former from launching its liquid milk in the Delhi market till 2003.

With the non-compete agreement having run out this year, Amul fresh milk was launched in Delhi last month in two variants — full cream and toned — priced at par with that of Mother Dairy at Rs 18 and Rs 14 per litre, respectively.

Amul, to its delight, has seen the demand for its milk going up by leaps and bounds in the city and is now planning to enter into alliances with dairies located around Delhi such as Indian Potash and Modern Dairy to cater to the demand.

Amul already has a lease agreement with Kwality Dairy's unit in Faridabad where it is planning to increase capacity and has also decided to set up a new 5-lakh litre per day dairy plant at an investment of Rs 40 crore in Haryana to cater to the northern market.

GCMMF officials say the company's milk capacity has already touched 80,000 litres per day (LPD) and have plans to take it to 3 LPD. Amul is now selling through 2,500 retail outlets and will increase this to 7,500 apart from covering outlets which are selling Amul butter.