GCMMF plans Rs 100 crore spread

The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which markets the Amul and Mother Dairy brand products, will expand the capacity of its Bhat plant in Gandhinagar for Rs 100 crore.

A new milk powder plant of 100 metric tonne per day capacity will be installed in the next one year at the plant.

As part of the expansion plan, the federation has also decided to double its tetra-pack milk production capacity.

It will also add 35 metric tonne per day capacity to its powder packaging line.

"With the expansion plan, the plant will emerge as Asia's largest dairy plant. Also, in response to a global bidding for our milk powder plan, we are screening the offers and hope that the 100 metric tonne capacity new plant will be operational in the next one year, said Sunil Bansal, general manager of Mother Dairy.

"We also have plans to introduce both skimmed milk powder (SMP) and whole milk powder (WMP) in packaging such as glass bottles and sachets with value-addition.

"We will also add a 35 metric tonne capacity in the powder packaging line which has at present a 60 metric tonne capacity.

"This line is expected to be operational in the next one month," said the general manager.

Bansal said GCMMF is also adding one lakh litre per day capacity in its tetra-pack line at the Bhat plant.

This expansion project is expected to be completed in three months. The Bhat plant is the first unit in the country to acquire the certificate for quality hygiene and environment, ISO 9000:2000, HACCP and ISO 14001.

"With the expansion, this plant with a handling capacity of 25 lakh litres per day of milk, will emerge as the continent's largest plant. We want to see Amul to go further from its today's position of being replicated in over one lakh villages covering more than one crore of farmers," said B M Vyas, managing director of GCMMF.

GCMMF's sales turnover, which were at Rs 2,336.5 crore at the end of fiscal 2001-02, witnessed a rise of over 15 per cent at the end of last fiscal year.

Turnover is also expected to be much higher at the end of the current fiscal.

GCMMF is targeting a 17 per cent rise in its business by the end of current fiscal and report sales of around Rs 320 crore.

Expansion at GCMMF's Bhat plant, which mainly produces Mother Dairy brand products, is part of the federation's expansion strategy initiated during last fiscal and being rolled over throughout the current year.

During last September, GCMMF has also decided to take the Amul model outside India and has plans to set up a new plant in Sri Lanka which will initially manufacture butter, cheese, ghee and also SMP and WMP.

The Sri Lanka plant will require an initial investment of Rs 20 crore by the federation. So far GCMMF has been exporting Amul products to the US, middle-east and also to Singapore and the United Kingdom through a distributor network.

The Sri Lanka project, which will be GCMMF's first overseas project, is expected to be operational by October this year

It has been reliably learnt that as part of its ongoing expansion project, the federation is also surveying the market in the middle-east and the gulf, especially Dubai, where it has a strong market share in butter and ghee.

On Saturday, the Union minister for agriculture Rajnath Singh had visited the plant and had a meeting with the board of directors of the federation.