Do you have a favourite song that puts you in a trance and forces you to stand still and listen every time it plays? Amul’s incredible journey reminds us of that music.
Amul sparked India’s white revolution, transforming the dairy cooperative movement while rallying and easing the plight of millions of Indian farmers. As Amul’s long-term business partner, we at SAP India, are extremely proud of the company’s success, which has inspired an entire nation and demonstrated the importance of cooperative enterprises in nation-building and development.
The Beginning – From Cow to Consumer
The “Amul” brand is promoted by the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) Ltd., India’s largest food product organization, and the Dairy Cooperatives of Gujarat’s apex organization. In 2021-22, the company’s annual group turnover was INR 63,000 crores (USD 8.4 billion). Amul has grown into an iconic, local brand that is now the world’s eighth-largest dairy company in the previous two decades.
In the last 75 years, we’ve seen:
- Gujarat’s dairy cooperatives have created an economic network that connects more than 3.6 million village milk producers with millions of Indian and international consumers.
- They gather an average of 267 lakh litres of milk per day from their producer members (26.7 million litres per day).
- More than 70% of the population is made up of small-scale farmers and landless laborers, with a significant number of tribal people and scheduled castes.
- The GCMMF and its member unions ensure that 80-85% of consumer rupees are returned to milk producer members.
The IT Call
Although Amul’s success propelled India into the world’s largest producer of milk and milk products, the journey to it has been a long one. As the company’s operations grew exponentially, it required a robust solution that could provide an end-to-end supply chain with dairy-specific functionality, tighter integration between the sales and distribution arms, and in general bring all its entities to work on a common set of processes and technology systems, with the same level of business process maturity. Additionally, Amul also experienced data discrepancies and inaccuracies, slowing down overall business processes and efficiencies.
Amul then roped in SAP India to optimize business processes and drive company-wide digital transformation using SAP’s digital core ERP and supply chain solutions. SAP’s platform helped Amul scale its operations and broaden its milk product category, releasing over 100 products.
Amul is also a member of SAP’s Global Advisory Council, which aims to foster thought leadership and gather consumer feedback to help the company and the industry flourish.
Amul’s goal is to double farmers’ income in the next two years by improving support through cattle feed support programs, skill enhancement, and veterinary services, for which SAP is collaborating with the company to build an IoT platform and truly transform it into an “intelligent, sustainable enterprise.”
“The best way to predict your future is to create it,”- Abraham Lincoln
Technology has been instrumental in driving Amul’s digital business transformation, opening new avenues for economic growth and socio-cultural changes at India’s grassroots. But it’s crucial to realize that no single company, industry, or country can solve these problems on its own as we work toward a more equal and social society. While Amul’s developmental model has provided a framework for all of us, India’s greatest success will come from sharing our lessons gained and aiding one another in reaching our common aspirations for a better, more just, and equal future.
It is in this spirit now that Amul and SAP India, have launched a collaborative community outreach initiative, that will make technology accessible to the remote communities of Bharat and help transform the lives of millions of kids, adolescents, youth, women, and farmers. Through this, both the companies aim to empower people with technology, in the remotest areas of Gujarat, to drive new engines of growth and opportunities in a way, that benefits everyone and drives the vision of an ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ or a ‘Self-reliant India.’
Using Digital Transformation to help India run better and transform people’s lives
As a part of the program, the companies will:
- Develop digitally-savvy communities: by imparting digital literacy, coding, problem-solving and English skills to 100,000 children, adolescents, and youth via computer labs set up across 60 schools. We will also train over 250 teachers, thus enabling the adoption of India’s New Education Policy imperatives.
- Will facilitate school to Workforce transition: By promoting a STEM-focused learning environment to help students from marginalized communities to make a smoother transition from school to the workforce. Our mission is to reduce school dropouts, and improve learning outcomes, thus creating an employable talent pool and a future-ready workforce.
- Drive Women empowerment and entrepreneurship: By supporting over 20,000 young women through digital-financing skill enablement and functional communications. By strengthening support for the social business sector, our hope is to enable women with “employable 21st-century skills” while helping them lead their own communities.
- Digital Transformation Supporting Farmer Livelihoods: By scaling community ownership & participation under Build, Operate, Transfer Model of sustainable development, by planting fruit-bearing saplings. This will help improve biodiversity, reduce soil erosion, and increase green cover, thus enhancing the livelihoods of countless Indian farmers and their families.
SAP India & Amul Partner to Transform Lives of 1.5M Indians (Video):
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