Amul facts for kids
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Trade name
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Amul Coop |
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| Cooperative | |
| Industry | Dairy |
| Founded | 14 December 1946 |
| Founder | Tribhuvandas Patel |
| Headquarters | Anand, Gujarat, India |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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Jayen Mehta (managing director) |
| Products | Milk products |
| Revenue |  ₹52,000 crore (US$8.8 billion) (2022) |
| Owner | Dairy Producers of Gujarat |
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Number of employees
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1,000 (officers and employees) 3.6 million (milk producers) |
| Divisions |
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Amul is a big Indian company that works as a cooperative. It stands for Anand Milk Union Limited. It's based in Anand, Gujarat, India. A cooperative means it's owned and controlled by the 3.6 million milk producers themselves, mostly farmers. This makes sure the farmers get a fair price for their milk.
Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel started Amul in 1946. He was the chairman until the 1970s. In 1949, he hired Verghese Kurien, who helped a lot with the company's technology and marketing. Kurien is often called the "Father of the White Revolution" in India because of his work with Amul. Amul helped India become the world's largest producer of milk and milk products.
Contents
How Amul Started
Amul began on December 19, 1946. It was created to help small dairy farmers who were being treated unfairly by traders. Back then, one company called Polson had a monopoly, meaning they controlled all the milk collection and decided the prices. This made it hard for farmers to earn a fair living.
Farmers in the Kaira district, led by Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel, asked Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel for help. Sardar Patel told them to form their own cooperative. This way, they could sell their milk directly to the Bombay Milk Scheme instead of through Polson. Morarji Desai helped the farmers organize this.
The farmers agreed and decided not to sell milk to Polson anymore. They set up small cooperatives in each village. By 1948, the Kaira cooperative started preparing milk for the Bombay Milk Scheme.
Later, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri visited Amul in 1964. He was so impressed that he decided to create the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). This organization aimed to help other parts of India create similar successful milk cooperatives.
The cooperative grew even more thanks to Verghese Kurien and Harichand Megha Dalaya. Dalaya found a way to make milk powder from buffalo milk, which was a big step forward for India's dairy industry. Kurien helped make this process work on a large scale.
The success of Amul spread quickly. Other districts in Gujarat, like Mehsana and Surat, started their own milk cooperatives, following Amul's "Anand pattern."
In 1970, Amul led India's "White Revolution." This was a huge effort to increase milk production across the country. To work together and reach more customers, the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF) was formed in 1973. This group became the main marketing body for all these district cooperatives. Amul's brand name, which it had since 1955, was transferred to GCMMF.
In 1999, Amul received the "Best of All" Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award.
Today, GCMMF is India's largest food product marketing organization. It sells products under the Amul and Sagar brands. This network connects over 3.1 million village milk producers with millions of customers across India. In 2007, GCMMF's sales went over US$1 billion. Also, in 2007, the dairy cooperatives under GCMMF collected over 10 million kilograms of milk in one day, which was a record for India.
In 2018, Amul opened a new chocolate factory near its headquarters. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was there for the opening. The new factory can make 1,000 tonnes of chocolate per month, much more than before.
In 2024, Amul also started working with the Michigan Milk Producers Association (MMPA) to sell fresh milk in the United States.
Long-Life Milk Products
Amul has seen a lot of growth, especially with its long-life milk products. These are called UHT products, like Amul Taaza. They come in special cartons that don't need to be kept cold until opened. This is because the milk is heated to a very high temperature to remove all harmful germs, while still keeping the nutrition.
Amul sells a lot of UHT milk every day. These products have helped Amul become a leader in packaged milk because they don't need a cold storage system, making it easier to reach people in cities.
Amul's Famous Ads
In 1966, Amul hired an advertising agency to create ads for Amul Butter. They came up with the idea of using a cartoon girl, now known as the Amul Butter Girl, in ads that talked about current events. These ads became very popular and even earned a Guinness World Record for being the longest-running ad campaign in the world.
The Amul ads are known for being clever and funny. The artists and writers behind them, like Kumar Morey and Bharat Dabholkar, made sure the ads were unique. They didn't use famous celebrities, which was different from other ads at the time.
The Amul girl has appeared in many ads over the years. For example, in 2021, she was shown celebrating with PV Sindhu when she won a bronze medal in badminton at the Tokyo Olympics.
Sometimes, Amul's ads have caused a bit of discussion, but the agency has always stuck to its creative ideas.
Awards and Recognition
In August 2019, Amul became the first dairy company from India to be listed in Rabobank's Global Top 20 Dairy Companies. This shows how big and important Amul is in the world of dairy.
See also
- Aavin
- Anikspray
Images for kids
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Verghese Kurien, Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel, and Harichand Megha Dalaya
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Charles, Prince of Wales, visits India and Amul with Harichand Megha Dalaya, in December 1980
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Amul's chocolate plant at Anand in September 2018
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Amul plant at Anand, Gujarat, showing the milk silos
