Table talk. Apps, Amul and the new milky way

Jayen Mehta, all of 6 ft1 inch, leans over the table excitedly to show the Amul app, bristling with features, on his phone. The Managing Director of GCMMF, better known for its brand Amul, says everything is digitally integrated end-to-end for the cooperative. “Today, the app shows we would have collected 230 lakh litres of milk from 30 lakh farmers,” he explains. It will also indicate, he says, the fat content of milk given by each farmer and the money paid out to them.

Raghuvir Srinivasan, Editor, businessline and I are at the Cafe Marina for dinner at the iconic Welcom Hotel in Chennai, one of Chennai’s first five-star hotels. Mehta is in Chennai to be part of the eminent jury to select the winners of the businessline Changemaker Awards 2024. We manage to buttonhole him for dinner and conversation before the jury meeting the following day.

Mehta continues, “Sitting here, on my app, I can name the shops in a 10 km radius, name of the distributor looking after this shop, name of the salesman and list of Amul products in that shop.”

He taps the phone furiously and says that in a 6 km radius there are 2,078 outlets selling Amul products. He zeroes in on a kirana store in the Alwarpet area of Chennai, Pandian Stores. The app gives him the store’s phone number, the salesman’s name — Sandeep and that the store stocks 59 varieties of ice cream. “If I am on a market visit tomorrow, I know exactly what he’s selling, instead of checking his fridge. So, my sales pitch becomes easier,” he elaborates.

Mehta sticks to a Jain menu wherever he eats and we too opt for it. We are in the private dining room of the hotel and we’re served a tomato shorba with dhaniya and badam with a karuveppilai podi idli, dudhiya kebab and bharwan paneer tikka for starters. As we eat, Mehta elaborates about the app. You can also buy cows and buffaloes on this app, he declares. He shows us that a farmer in Banaskantha has put up a cow for sale for ₹35,000. “Every detail is there; that the cow gives 12 litres of milk, its vaccination record, the breed, photos,” he says. Farmer records too are there, he says, showing us one Nainaben’s account — she sold 9.8 litres of milk that day having 3.9 per cent fat, and ₹348 was credited to her account. “Her full passbook is also there; in August she was credited ₹5,023 for the 139 litres of milk procured from her,” says Mehta.

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Foods foray

We veer away from the app and ask Mehta about Amul’s organic foods foray which too he’s passionate about. Amul has launched over 20 organic products in the market — flour, different types of dals and rice, besan — and is getting into spices, turmeric, sugar and jaggery. “We’ve gone national, touching two lakh shops in almost every region of the country and gradually expanding. Promoting organic foods is also a mission to look after the soil and , improve carbon content,” explains Mehta.

Amul, along with the Bharat brand from NCOL (National Cooperative Organic Ltd), set up by NDDB, have been tasked with promoting organic foods in a big way, says Mehta.

“Together we will build a market for organic products. We will have a network of labs for testing; we will advertise, do consumer activation and brand building. We have the distribution and will leverage Amul parlours to set up exclusive organic parlours. We want to grow the category and educate consumers that they don’t have to pay a premium for organic foods,” he elaborates.

We are onto our main course now and are served some tasty dal palak, achari bhindi and paneer kadhai with khasta paratha. We relish it and comment that Jain food is indeed tasty, to which Mehta says, with a smile, “Yes, and I manage to get it wherever I travel, even abroad.”

Mehta’s other pet passion is high protein foods for which Amul has big plans. One gram of protein per kg of body weight is what one should consume. Amul is adding protein to buttermilk, dahi and soon in ice creams too. “Over 100 products are on the anvil. Protein will be added to all sorts of things: mithai, jams, kulcha, paneer paratha, dal makhni and cookies. We should give protein as a food rather than as a supplement,” he elaborates.

Amul sponsored three cricket teams in the recent T20 World Cup: South Africa, Sri Lanka and the US. Mehta says the brand got more than bang for its buck with the performances of the US and Afghan teams. Mehta, who doesn’t watch TV, was asleep on the night of the world cup final and was woken up by his daughter, sarcastically saying, see your team is winning, when SA had the upper hand. He was one relieved man when India won.

Going global

Amul is making a big foray into the US for milk. Its products are already available but milk in cartons is a recent foray. “We launched milk with 6 per cent fat on May 1 by sourcing locally. The recipe and specs are ours,” says Mehta. “Indians are the first ones to take it. Next, we have to get into stores other than Indian grocery stores,” he says. His sister in the US told him that high fat in milk in the US won’t succeed; when Amul launched, he gave her a carton. “She loved the chai she made from it and now says it’ll do well!”

Mehta grew up in the town of Veraval, Gujarat, where his father worked for Indian Rayon. As a Gujarati who grew up in the State, Mehta, surprisingly, is fluent in Malayalam and can read and write. He says every summer his Malayalee friends would have classes in Malayalam and he sat along and picked up the language. The denouement of this is that he surprised Verghese Kurien (Milkman of India) many years later with his Malayalam!

As dessert of malpua with saffron rabri is served, we have to ask Mehta two Amul questions: how much of a role does the company play in the Amul girl’s pithy lines and what Amul products does he like? The agency, DaCunha, has a free hand on the ads he says. Only at times, the descriptors that go with the post are tweaked. Amul, which wrapped up FY23-24 with ₹60,000 crore in turnover spends just one per cent of sales on advertising, while the other FMCG giants spend 5-12 , he says. As for what Amul product he likes, he says with a twinkle in his eyes, “I love and eat them all!”