Amul facts for kids
Amul, which stands for Anand Milk Union Limited, is a very popular Indian dairy brand. It is owned by a cooperative society, which is a large group of farmers working together. This group is called the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF). It is based in the city of Anand, Gujarat, and is managed by 3.6 million milk producers.
The cooperative was started by Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel in 1946. He was its chairman for many years. In 1949, he hired a man named Verghese Kurien. Mr. Kurien was a genius at marketing and helped Amul become a huge success.
Amul was a key part of a major event in India's history called the White Revolution. This movement helped India become the world's biggest producer of milk and milk products. Today, Amul also sells its products in other countries.
Contents
The Story of Amul
Why Was Amul Created?
Amul was founded on December 14, 1946. Before Amul, small dairy farmers in the Kaira district of Gujarat felt they were being treated unfairly. A company called Polson had almost total control over buying milk from farmers and selling it in big cities like Mumbai. The farmers believed they were not paid a fair price for their milk.
Tired of this situation, the farmers, led by Tribhuvandas Patel, asked a famous leader, Vallabhbhai Patel, for help. He advised them to start their own cooperative. This way, they could sell their milk directly, without a middleman. Sardar Patel sent another leader, Morarji Desai, to help the farmers get organized.
The farmers held a meeting and decided they would no longer sell their milk to Polson. They set up small cooperatives in each village. This made it easier for farmers to sell their milk, even if they only had a small amount each day. By 1948, their cooperative had started to process and sell milk.
Growing into a Success
The cooperative grew stronger with the help of Verghese Kurien and H. M. Dalaya. Mr. Dalaya came up with a brilliant idea. He figured out how to make milk powder from buffalo milk. This was a major invention that changed the dairy industry in India.
With Mr. Kurien's leadership, this new process was used to create a modern dairy. Soon, Amul was competing with bigger, more established companies.
The success of Amul inspired other farmers. Soon, five other districts in Gujarat started their own dairy cooperatives using the same "Anand pattern."
The White Revolution
In 1970, Amul led the White Revolution in India. To become even stronger, the different district cooperatives joined together. In 1973, they formed the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF). This main group handles the marketing and advertising for all the cooperatives. The brand name "Amul" was given to GCMMF to use for all their products.
The great ideas and technology developed at Amul spread across India. This helped the entire country produce more milk. In 1999, Amul received a top national award for its quality. By 2025, Amul was ranked as the third most valuable brand in India.
The Famous Amul Ads
One of the most famous things about Amul is its advertising, especially the "Amul Girl." She is a cute cartoon character in a polka-dotted dress.
In 1966, Amul hired an advertiser named Sylvester daCunha to create a new ad campaign. He came up with the idea of using billboards with funny cartoons about current events. The ads were a huge hit and earned a Guinness World Record for being the longest-running ad campaign in the world.
The ads are known for being clever and sometimes a little bold. The team behind the ads, including chairman Verghese Kurien, believed in having the freedom to be creative.
The Amul Girl Through the Years
The Amul Girl first appeared in an ad that said, "Give us this day our daily bread: with Amul butter." On October 17, 2016, she celebrated her 50th anniversary.
In recent years, Amul's ads have continued to talk about current topics.
- In February 2020, an ad showed the Amul Girl with actor Joaquin Phoenix after he won a major award for the movie Joker. Because the actor is a vegan (someone who doesn't eat animal products), some people, including the group PETA, pointed out that it was strange to show him with butter, which is a dairy product.
- In July 2024, an ad featured Maya Neelakantan, a ten-year-old girl who wowed judges as a guitar player on the TV show America's Got Talent.
Amul's ads, especially one with the song Aagey Badhta Hai India (India Moves Forward), have been very popular online, getting millions of views.
