Jayen Mehta: Yes, the golden jubilee celebration for 50 years of GCMMF was attended by Honourable Prime Minister and the vision he gave for Amul to be the best and the strongest dairy brand in the world is inspirational for all of us and the 36 lakh farmers that own Amul. Having said that, this is an organisation which is deeply rooted into the rural society, 18,600 villages, 36 lakh farmer members. It is the world’s largest farmer-owned cooperative. So obviously, the expectations are also high.

Milk is of course the biggest business in FMCG, food, agriculture, all put together. And the turnover that we expect to have this year for the Amul brand will be almost 80%. We have been growing at double digit and we want to continue on that momentum. As you are aware, last year’s entire volume growth was because there was no increase in the price of milk per se. So on the whole, the trajectory of the organisation, all the constituents with 100 dairy plants, 18 district unions is all pretty much on the rise. The demand for all the products has been pretty good, encouraging in high double digits which is also very, very motivating.

What number were you expecting in terms of the revenue target for this year?

Jayen Mehta: Last year, Amul brand turnover was about Rs 72,000 crore. Going by the double digit growth that we have, it will definitely be Rs 80,000 crore for the year ending March, that is by the end of this month. GCF turnover last year was about Rs 55,000 crore; it will cross Rs 60,000 crore. All in all, we are managing double digit growth and will continue to build on this in the coming years.

Do you expect to see a big uptick in your volumes in the upcoming summer season? What are the early signs of the kind of demand you would see at the onset of summer?

Jayen Mehta: February was quite good and in March, the first two weeks have already passed and the results are pretty good. There’s a huge uptick in demand for ice creams, beverages, dahi, buttermilk – most of our products are impulse products driven by summer. Last year, the summer season was not so good. Still, ice cream managed about 25-30% growth. This year, we expect much more growth because this summer will be a normal one. The same applies to beverages, buttermilk, dahi and the rest of the product categories.

What is your outlook on how the cheese products are doing and do you think that the performance here is expected to improve?

Jayen Mehta: Yes, of course. Cheese is one of our very strong products in our portfolio. But going by the estimation of demand and the growth we are finding across categories, we are increasing the capacity by almost 55% in this fiscal. We have the largest manufacturers and brand of cheese in the country. Our market share is more than 70 in the range of 70-75%, slightly less than butter, which is about 85%.

So you can assume and estimate that the number 2, 3, 4 brands are all in single digit market share and almost 1/10th or 1/20th of the volume that we do. So that way, we are very optimistic about this category. We are planning to expand more than 55% in volume capacities. The huge demand, both in the consumer, Horeca and the institutional segment, is going to go up and we will surely gain very good volumes and market share in this category as well.

Okay, gaining market share in this category is what you are expecting. But there is one concern as the cacao prices have seen a very sharp increase in the last one year. So in the chocolate side, which is obviously fairly new for Amul, do you see any impact on pricing? Is there where we would see a sharp price increase coming in for the company now?

Jayen Mehta: Major value, the increase in the price was in cocoa butter. And thanks to possibly huge speculation internationally that is going to happen. India fortunately also manufactures cocoa beans, cocoa butter and the cocoa powder and the derivatives. So that way we are slightly insulated because Campco is a cooperative and we have a strong association with that. Amul is the number one brand in dark chocolate which means that our exposure to cocoa is much higher. But yes, we will be taking a very calibrated increase. I will not say a sharp increase in prices because Amul after all is a value for money brand. But yes, you will see the impact of the increase in cocoa prices in other products like ice creams, beverages and so on. So the industry will be bracing for a surprisingly high increase in the price of cocoa butter. But fortunately, since we do have in house manufacturing capabilities, we are slightly better off than the rest.

Calibrated increase is what you are saying as well but what would the percent be because you even mentioned ice cream also, where one could see an increase coming in? So how much would that increase be, by when would we start seeing that maybe Q1 FY25 or even in the next couple of months is where we could expect the increase?

Jayen Mehta: That is for the next couple of months only. You cannot wait for a prolonged increase in these prices. I am sure that since our pricing is quite competitive, consumers will not be able to feel the pinch. And since we sell larger bars, it is much more value for money.

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