GCMMF ups milk film unit capacity

With a turnover of Rs 2,900 crore in the last fiscal year, the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) has now emerged as the country's largest milk film manufacturer.

It has just upgraded the capacity of the fully computerised, three-layer polythene manufacturing plant located at the Mother Dairy in Gandhinagar. The plant, which had a capacity of producing 1,000 MT of milk film, now can produce between 10,000 and 12,000 MT of film a year.

Although the focus of the federation is to manufacture and market milk and its products, it decided in 1995 to set up a polythene milk film manufacturing plant at its Mother Dairy complex in Gandhinagar.

Named 'Amulsealk', the federation not only uses the milk film, a strip of polythene which is used to package milk, to package its own products, but has also begun supplying the film to other dairies in Gujarat and all over the country.

"Over the past few years, Amulsealk has emerged as the most trusted milk film in the country. With our Mother Dairy leakage per cent being as low as 0.3 per cent, the company saves costs by as much as 20 per cent. Today, we have been receiving inquiries from several dairies across the country for supplying milk film and hence have upgraded the capacity of our plant to produce ten times more milk film," said S K Bansal, general manager, Mother Dairy.

Bansal said the milk film market in the country is pegged at around 30,000 metric tonnes a year. The official said with the capacity having been increased, the federation is left with no "realistic" competition.

"We will now be in a position to sell 50 per cent of all milk film produced, while using the remaining for packaging our products across the country," Bansal said.

He said with the increased capacity, the federation will now look at the milk film plant not just as one providing polythene for packaging its own products, but as a revenue earner for the federation by selling film to other dairies.

Bansal said the plant at Gandhinagar supplies milk film to all dairies in Gujarat along with Noida Dairy, other dairies of Punjab Co-operative Dairy Federation, Tamil Nadu Milk Federation, Delhi Milk Scheme, Jalgaon Dairy and even dairies in Tripura and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

"Besides, we have been getting enquiries from other dairies as well," Bansal said. The federation has invested over Rs five crore in increasing capacity of the plant, where first grade polymer is being used.

The ISO9001-2000-certified unit has been using the latest manufacturing technologies like blown film plants with internal bubble cooling technology, auto splicing printing machines up to six colours and air-forced ventilation systems.

Most of these features have been introduced as part of the capacity upgradation plan, Bansal said.