Program & Batch: DCP (2013-15)

Roll No. 1302-070

Name of the Student Jubin Goel
Name of the academic
guide/ faculty:
Dr. Poonam Garg
Project Title :
To survey, understand and report Ice
Cream servicing issues at Amul
Preferred Outlets in Anand &
To prepare a seasonality chart of
schemes operated in the market by
other Ice Cream players

Organization Name: GCMMF Ltd. (Amul India)
Original
or Revised Write-up:
Original
Contact No. +91-9871329267
Email id jubingoel@live.com











To survey, understand and report Ice Cream servicing
issues at Amul Preferred Outlets in Anand
And
To prepare a seasonality chart of schemes operated in the
market by other Ice Cream players









By


Jubin Goel












June, 2014




To survey, understand and report Ice Cream servicing
issues at Amul Preferred Outlets in Anand
And
To prepare a seasonality chart of schemes operated in the
market by other Ice Cream players














By


Jubin Goel



Under the guidance of


Shri Bharat Patel Dr. Poonam Garg
Branch Manager, Anand Professor
GCMMF Ltd., Anand IMT, Ghaziabad



June, 2014




Certificate of Approval


The following Summer Project Report titled "To survey, understand and report Ice Cream servicing
issues at Amul Preferred Outlets in Anand And To prepare a seasonality chart of schemes operated in
the market by other Ice Cream players" is hereby approved as a certified study in management carried
out and presented in a manner satisfactory to warrant its acceptance as a prerequisite for the award of
Post-Graduate Diploma in Management for which it has been submitted. It is understood that by
this approval the undersigned do not necessarily endorse or approve any statement made, opinion
expressed or conclusion drawn therein but approve the Summer Project Report only for the purpose it
is submitted.

Summer Project Report Examination Committee for evaluation of Summer Project Report

Name Signature



1. Faculty Examiner _______________________ ___________________


2. PG Summer Project Coordinator _______________________ ___________________






Certificate from Summer Project Guides


This is to certify that Mr. Jubin Goel, a student of the Post-Graduate Diploma in Management, has
worked under our guidance and supervision. This Summer Project Report has the requisite standard
and to the best of our knowledge no part of it has been reproduced from any other summer project,
monograph, report or book.







Dr. Poonam Garg Shri Bharat Patel
Professor Branch Manager, Anand
IMT, Ghaziabad GCMMF Ltd., Anand

Date Date

1

Acknowledgements

Experience is perhaps the most important of all the things that a man can have, but it comes with time
and effort. As a young student, my curiosity compels me jump over these bounds and learn more and
more, and so I do, from the experience and guidance of others, and for their time and effort and their
willingness to guide me, I am grateful.

I wish to express my sincere thanks to Shri S.P. Singh (Head, Ice-cream Division, GCMMF Ltd.) for
granting me, in the form of this project, the opportunity to learn how the No. 1 ice-cream brand of the
country reached where it is and it surges ahead.

Shri Bharat Patel and Shri Kapil Mathur of the Anand Branch Office of GCMMF Ltd. have mentored
me on this project and helped me understand how this vast machinery of milk procurement,
refrigerated trucks, mfg. units, the Frozen Highway and thousands of people, works. I am truly
thankful to you, Sirs, for your time and knowledge.

I would also like to thank my Professor-in-charge, Dr. Poonam Garg of IMT Ghaziabad for her
guidance on the project and the preparation of this report.

This acknowledgment is incomplete without the mention of Mr. Akhilesh (GCMMF Ltd. HQ) and
Mr. Keyur Trivedi (GCMMF Ltd. Anand) and Mr. Ashok (GCMMF Ltd. Vadodara). I thank you for
your time and your insight into the ground-level intricacies of sales and marketing of ice-cream,
particularly in the cities of Anand and Vadodara.

Finally, the completion of this project would be impossible without the time and patience of the many
APO owners/operators who were kind enough to respond to my questions and queries and discuss the
issues and matters of the business















2

Abstract
GCMMF Ltd, popularly known as Amul India Ltd, has been in the ice-cream business for nearly 2
decades now and as far as India is concerned, they are doing exceptionally well the market leader
with 40% market share.

How has this giant arrived here? What is their business model? Most importantly, despite their size
and leadership, what problems plague this system and what are the solutions to these problem? These
are the questions that I have attempted to answer by means of this project, and I present to you my
learnings, findings and managerial point of view in the form of this report.

The primary motive of this project is to look closely at the sales, distribution and marketing operations
of Amul Ice-cream in the city of Anand and detect the Pain areas in ice-cream distribution and
servicing here.
Along with this, I have also attempted to analyse the competition (Havmor and Vadilal, in this case)
and understand their schemes and offerings as against those of Amul for the ice-cream consumer.

I was required to visit APOs (Amul Preferred Outlets) and Scooping Parlours in Anand and interact
directly with the people running these enterprises, with a questionnaire as my main tool and building
on further questions, digging deeper, looking for answers.
And to understand what the competition has to offer, different or more than us, to the consumer, I
went to Havmor and Vadilal stores as a consumer. Luckily for me, Gujarat is a state of pleasant,
friendly, hospitable people, and in many instances, I learned more than I hoped to, both from the
Amul people and the competition.

Armed with a questionnaire and my probing, investigative and curious manners, I gathered all the
information I could over a period of 2 months and came to 7 conclusive points of concern that need to
be addressed. The Results and Findings section will discuss in detail, the points
Packaging
In-consistency of Flavours
Replacement Policy
Distributor Concerns
Schemes operated by Company not reaching the End-Consumer
Promotion Concerns from the Scooping Parlours
Lack of communication between the Retailers and the Federation

These issues are the ones, that after extensive questioning and verification along with deductive
analyses, were consistently found to be the woes of almost every APO.

A brand like Amul stands tall over its opponents. It might take over a decade for even the best of the
marketing strategies to become a threat to the market presence that Amul has in the ice-cream
segment. And though this is a matter of great pride and accomplishment, it has also made Amul
complacent in its operations.

The defect rate in a very popular ice-cream Mango Dolly, in the packages delivered at the APOs is
approximately 15% as against the competition that delivers nearly 0% defective products. The fact
that Amul is the no. 1 ice-cream brand in the country has led to the distributors trying to assert unjust
authority, with little monitoring from the representatives of GCMMF Ltd.
3

Crudely stating, Amul as a brand, though offers best-in-class products at very competitive prices and
is the backbone of the dairy industry of this country, they are now resting on their laurels and just the
amount of effort currently in place is not enough. The difference between ordinary and extra-ordinary
is that little extra. With brands like Baskin Robbins invading the markets and thriving on the
increasing purchasing power of the consumer, along with the persistent Vadilal persuading retailers to
switch over to their side with very lucrative incentives, its time Amul started putting in that little
extra.

APO owners are who the consumer interacts with in the name of the Federation. Annual meetings,
periodicals being published and distributed are necessary steps that GCMMF should take to make
them more involved and cultivate in them loyalty and a feeling of belonging to the Federation. Apart
from motivating them to further boost sales and smoothen out the daily operations, this is also very
important to mitigate the brewing discontent in their hearts towards the Federation and its failed
policies.

High demand has led to make-shift practices and compromise on quality to cater to the markets. But
with revenues of over 13,000 crores (2012-13) and the brand and promise created over nearly 7
decades of existence, we cannot afford to let the customer down by selling him broken and deformed
ice-creams.

Most importantly, policies in place are of no value if they are not enforced. We have a lot to offer,
millions are being spent to develop new flavours, in the advertising campaigns, but if the schemes and
the new flavours are not available at the store when the customer demands them, it is all dust.


Under the Recommendations section, I have attempted to suggest ways of tackling these problems.
But regardless of the managerial outlook on how to solve these problems, the most crucial factor is
the willingness to adopt change and push it further evolve constantly.
















4

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................. 1
Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 2
Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................... 4
List of Figures ......................................................................................................................................... 5
List of Tables .......................................................................................................................................... 6
I Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 7
II Need of the Study .................................................................................................................... 10
2.1 Objectives ................................................................................................................................ 10
III The Research ............................................................................................................................ 10
3.1 P
1
.............................................................................................................................................. 11
3.1.1 Research Methodology ............................................................................................... 11
3.1.2 Data Collection Questionnaire and Sample Responses ........................................... 11
3.1.3 Data Sources ............................................................................................................... 13
3.2 P
2
.............................................................................................................................................. 14
3.2.1 Research Methodology ............................................................................................... 14
3.2.2 Data Sources ............................................................................................................... 15
3.2.3 Data Collection and Analysis - Vadilal ...................................................................... 15
3.2.4 Data Collection and Analysis - Havmor ..................................................................... 15
IV Results and Findings ................................................................................................................ 17
4.1 P
1
.............................................................................................................................................. 17
4.1.1 Packaging .................................................................................................................... 17
4.1.2 Inconsistency of Flavours ........................................................................................... 17
4.1.3 Replacement Policy .................................................................................................... 18
4.1.4 Distributor Concerns ................................................................................................... 18
4.1.5 Schemes operated by Company not reaching the End-Consumer ............................. 18
4.1.6 Promotion Concerns from Scooping Parlours ............................................................ 18
4.1.7 Lack of communication between the Retailers and the Federation ........................... 18
4.2 P
2
.............................................................................................................................................. 19
V Recommendations .................................................................................................................... 21




5






List of Figures


Figure No. Description Page
1 Market Share (Branded) 7
2 Competition 7
3 Indian Ice-cream Market:
Sales in Value
7
4 Branded v/s Grey Market 7

__________________________























6






List of Tables


Table No. Description Page
1 List of Parlours visited 13
2 Brief Comparison table of
offerings and pricing by Amul,
Vadilal and Havmor
19

________________________________



























7

I) Introduction

GCMMF Ltd. (Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation) aka Amul India Ltd. is an
organisation that needs little introduction, however, referring specifically to the Ice-cream Division,
there is a lot that stands as an example to any organisation aiming to reach great heights in their field.

Started in 1995, the Ice-cream division is currently one of the most
prominent divisions of Amul, with Shri S.P. Singh at the helm,
currently. In a 3,000 crore market (ice-cream - India), Amul Ice-
cream stands as the leader today with a 40% market share.

The reasons behind Amul Ice-cream being Indias no. 1 selling
brand are many
All the plants are state-of-the-art with ISO 9001/9002 certifications.
Rated no. 1 in quality by CERC(Consumer Education & Research Centre), Ahmedabad
Superior quality (fresh milk, more fats and more nuts and dry fruits)
High-quality raw materials

Originally a milk and butter company, why did Amul enter this segment?
They already had the technical know-how, and the largest raw-material procurement base for this
product. The attractive growth rate of the industry along with an IMRB survey conducted in 1995,
urging them to enter the market, was the final nudge that was needed to push them into the sector.

A 40% market share is good, but it leaves a large market waiting to be captured. Who are their
competitors and how big are they?

And this is just the tip of the ice-berg, as, in the market with a hope and promise as great as the
statistics in Figure 3, the data of Figure 1 only represents a part of the actual market size, as seen in
Figure 4.




Figure 1 Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Millions of
8

In the words of one of my mentors at Amul, Mr. Kapil Mathur Ice-cream is an impulse product.
You rarely plan in the morning that you will have ice-cream today. At some point during the day, you
see a poster or a shop somewhere and you just go and get it. The ice-cream market in India is vast and
constantly growing. When the company entered the market, on an average, one person consumed
100ml of ice-cream in a year, but this has gone up to 400 ml per person per year now.

The Federation has to grow in both volume and value. How are we doing that? We open new stores
everyday all over the country, we invest more in advertising, and the right kind of advertising to reach
out to our consumer. If there is a product already selling well, we work on how to further increase the
sales. We bring in more flavours, new flavours and more variants to appeal to every kind of consumer
that is out there.

GCMMF in itself has 45 offices all over the country, with 750 employees. We have ice-cream
facilities at Gandhinagar, Vadodara, Anand, Palanpur, Kolkata, Mumbai and Tarapur.

The establishment of a Frozen highway (a vast network of mfg. facilities, distributors, cold storages,
refrigerated trucks etc.) is our most crucial asset, as a deep freezer in a shop has a limited capacity, but
in order to constantly cater to our markets in even the most high-demand seasons, we need to produce
and transport more and more products every day. More than 1 crore litres of milk is procured every
day for this purpose. The smooth functioning between the distributor and retailer is of great
importance. Ordinarily, a distributor runs 2-3 beats a week, but in seasons like the summers currently,
it may increase to 4-5 beats a week.

At first, we had the ordinary method of supplying and selling our products through the retailers and
grocery stores like any other FMCG product. But, retailers have no loyalty to a particular product or
brand. They will keep and sell and promote what gives them most profit or incentives.

So, in 2004, we brought in the concept of APOs (Amul Preferred
Outlets), wherein the shop owners could keep only Amul products
to sell, and in return, for a safety deposit of a meagre 25,000, we
provided them with Amul boards, products, preference in supply,
support and other means of marketing like a road-side board,
posters, special offers and schemes to pass on to the consumers.


Extending this model further, we came up with something called Scooping Parlours, wherein, for a
little more investment, ( 50,000 deposit) and an ice-cream serving set-up and air-conditioned seating
arrangement, and company-advised interior
designing, we gave the shop-owners, LED boards
along with the APO provisions and support. Their
incentive to go for this? With scooping ice-cream, and
the value-addition they were providing with seating
facility, their margins are considerably higher than an
APO. Also, they are given some special schemes for
the scooping part of the business(posters on the next
page). As of now, there are about 1,000 Scooping
Parlours all over the country.
9




According to the Annual Report of GCMMF Ltd. of 2012-13, the number of APOs in the country is
7,000 which they hope to take up to 10,000 by 2015.

As with any business, this 19 year-old endeavour, though vast and very strongly established, has a few
chinks in its armour, and the job assigned to me is to find these and advise possible solutions to these
issue.
































10

II) Need of the Study
The Indian ice-cream market was estimated to be worth 3047 crores as of April 2013. With Amul
reigning 40% of such a vast market, and volumes of this magnitude in play, there are bound to be
wrinkles in the fabric which need to be ironed out, and this is a business where You can never
cruise, its like driving a car uphill. You let go of the accelerator and it starts going backwards.
Beginning in 1995, Amul has flourished in the ice-cream segment till date, and has a brilliant growth
strategy ahead of them to further capture the market with their best-in-class products, reasonable
pricing and solid infrastructure, but as in any business, sometimes just the birds eye view keeps us
from seeing the intricate hurdles at the ground level.

So, in order to find out the problems with this business, at its roots (the APOs actually selling the
products) in Anand, the Milk City of India, and also to try and understand the ever scavenging
competition, I was given 2 problem statements.

2.1) Objectives
P
1
To understand APO Ice-cream servicing pain areas and to meet the distributor sales team and
understand the parlour requirements and servicing frequency in Anand.
P
2
To meet the retailers of competitor outlets and understand their activity and offerings.

As part of this project, 2 people I, along with Mr. Manish Maheshwari (a classmate at IMT
Ghaziabad) were supposed to visit 60 APOs in Anand and Vadodara, and meet the Amul Sales Team
and a distributor, under the Guidance of Shri Bharat Patel, Branch Manager, Anand, GCMMF Ltd.
With mutual consent, we split the given markets I, covering Anand and Mr. Manish covering
Vadodara.

III) The Research
In order to get a background on the business model followed at Amul, and the market and ways of the
company, we were given a 120 slide presentation by Mr. Akhilesh (Manager, Amul Ice-cream) at the
GCMMF HQ at Anand that explained the products, Amuls entry into the market and the business
model and marketing strategies of Amul Ice-cream in great detail.
Topics covered in the presentation
Product Category Overview
Current Scenario
Strategic Plan & Vision
Entry Strategy for GCMMF
Product Description & Features
ICMU Network
Sales Creation & Maintenance
Product Segmentation
Visibility
Other Initiatives
Further on, we met our guide Mr. Bharat Patel along with Mr. Kapil Mathur, who explained to us in
detail how things work at the ground level and what exactly are we expected to find out as part of this
research project.


11

3.1) P
1


3.1.1) Research Methodology
Starting with a meeting with Mr. Keyur Trivedi (Area Manager, Anand), I started learning the history
and business methods of the distributors and APOs in Anand. He explained to me how earlier one
distributor Santram Dist. was gaining an upper hand in the area being the only distributor, and how
the Federation then took the step to add more distributors in the region for 2 reasons one was to
reduce his influence as the sole distributor and second was to motivate them to perform better by
introducing some competition.

Moving on to the actual ground-work, for the first part of the project, I was required to personally
visit the APOs and Scooping Parlours in Anand and talk to each owner/operator to find out what
might be plaguing this system established over many years and huge investments from both the
Federation and the APO owners.

If it must be put into a category, the nature of my research was exploratory, for which I put together a
questionnaire and visited over two dozen APOs and Scooping parlours.


3.1.2) Data Collection Questionnaire and Sample Responses
With my learnings from the presentation and Mr. Patel and Mr. Mathur as the basis, in order to
identify the problems with Ice-cream servicing in the city of Anand, I designed a skeletal
questionnaire that pried into all the aspects of the business, and then probed further into certain
aspects that would be identified as needing attention, in order to narrow down onto the pain areas.

Q1. Which is your fastest moving SKU?
Q2. Which is your fastest moving flavour?
Q3. Lead time of delivery from Distributor after placing the order?
Q4. Age-wise distribution of customers?
Q5. Great demand for any particular flavours?
Q6. Problems with packaging?
Q7. Shortage of any particular flavours?
Q8. Seasonality of flavours?
Q9. Any recommendations/ ideas?
Q10. Safety stock maintained?
Q11. Recovery of Investment?
Q12. Are you satisfied with the replacement policy?
Q13. Complaints against the Distributor?
Q14. Complaints against GCMMF?
Q15. Any specific improvements required?

And as the issues requiring improvement came to light, I further probed into them to identify the root
cause of the problems. For example, the packaging of Mango Dolly (a fruit and milk, candy-stick ice-
cream) seemed to be consistently of poor quality across all APOs and was a major cause of concern.

Q. Is this a problem with the other flavours of this ice-cream as well? (e.g. Raspberry Dolly)
Ans. No.
12

Q. How is the demand for Mango Dolly as compared to Raspberry?
Ans. For every 2-3 Raspberries, we sell 5 Mangoes.
Q. How long has this problem persisted?
Ans. A few months ago, it wasnt such a major concern. But almost every summer season sees a drop
in the quality of the packaging.
Q. What seems to be the difference in the cardboard box packaging in the high-demand season and
otherwise?
Ans. Previously, the candy bars used to be neatly stacked in a proper fashion, one next to the other.
So, even in case of a temperature rise during transportation and distribution, the ice cream would not
lose its shape. But now, they just take 20 bars and stuff them into a cardboard box and deliver them.
Many packets are open, many ice cream bars have lost their shape and some are even broken from the
inside.

Ultimately, it seems like an increase in demand and the lack of a system/ mechanism to cope with it
has led to the operations being carried out in a hasty manner, causing a reduction in the Mango
Dolly packaging and delivery process quality.

A Sample of the responses received from the APO owners/ operators:
(Red font) Scooping Parlour
1. Sai Hari Parlour
Mr. Deepen Patel
Running for 1.5 years now
Most selling item Tricone (Butterscotch)
Flavours Pan Nawab, Vanilla
Earlier a 5 litre box used to cost 550-600, now a 4 litre box is 650-700
Empty wrappers instead of ice-cream in Mango Dolly and Frostik (chocobar)


This poster is a campaign exclusively for
Scooping Parlours where every month, a
particular flavour is sold out at the price of 15
per scoop as compared to the normal price of
20 per scoop on the 15
th
of that month.

This scheme was running at the time we visited
this parlour, and it was popular, but the level of
awareness among the consumers was little and more effort needs to be put in its marketing
(mass media ads would be good).
Pricing of the products is a problem as for a product costing 12 or some other odd figure,
the currency change becomes a problem. Prices rounded off to 5s and 10s are better.
PCF visits need to be more frequent.
Distributor Ratna Distributors
Advance booking for placing product orders is a good move.
Lead time morning to afternoon/evening in case of same day order, else next day for
advance order
No consistency in flavours, the owner has been asking for the Pan Nawab Flavour for over a
month now, with no supply.
13


2. Vani Amul Parlour
Mr. Mukesh Parikh
6 months since opening
Most selling item Vanilla cups, all sizes
Most selling flavour Vanilla and Afghan Dry Fruit
Odd pricing again a problem
Advertisements for new flavours are given, but no supply
Mango Dolly and Frostik (chocobar) packaging and empty packets problem
Satisfied with replacement policy
Tricones are poorly handled leading to soggy cones (not crispy), such is not a problem with
Havmor or Vadilal, he says
Though prices keep increasing, their commission remains the same
Market reach of Amul is good, but product is not up to expectations
Distributor Santram Dist.
Not happy with distributors support
Dist. takes order but at time of actual delivery, goods are not supplied

3. Ashirvaad Amul Parlour
Mr. Umar Raheja
All flavours, all SKUs sell well. (owing to his excellent location between a market and a
residential area)
No flavour preferences as such
Majority of the customers are women
No complaints in ice-cream
Demands that APOs be given preference over normal retailers for supply of products
Lighted board of Amul above the shop is malfunctioning, but no action taken despite
complaining a month ago
Poor servicing by distributor
Distributor Sarvoday Sales
Products are not delivered in time, servicing is irregular
Products are not available, or despite availability are not provided
Replacement policy is a problem

3.1.3) Data Sources

List of Parlours visited
NAME OWNER LOCATION
Shreeji Amul Parlour Raman Bhai Anand
Shri Harikishan Amul Parlour Manoj Patel Anand
Anand Amul Parlour LaxmanDas Anand
Ambika Amul Parlour Abdul Bhai Anand
SS Parlour Mr. Sikander Anand
Amay Trade Junction Praveen Bhai Anand
Taru Enterprises Scooping
Parlour
Anand
Table 1
14

Sun and Moon Amul Parlour Rajiv Bhai Anand
Sainath Gruh Udhyog Mr. Preedesh Anand
Pramukh Amul Parlour Kunal R. Kesari Anand
Jai Bhavani Amul Parlour Raman Bhai Anand
M. A. Parlour Supriya Ben Anand
Shri Ram Parlour Mahesh bhai Anand
DnM Parlour Ashwin Bhai Anand
Shri Baba Ramdev Parlour Ranjit N. Machhi Anand
Taru Enterprises (Ganesh
Parlour)
Jalpesh Patel Anand
Kajal M. Patel Scooping Parlour Dhiren Patel Anand
Vani Amul Parlour Mukesh Parikh Anand
Janaki Amul Parlour Manubhai S. Patel Anand
T. F. Amul Parlour Pravinbhai Soni Anand
Bhagat Amul Parlour Mr. Pranish Bhai Anand
Sai Hari Parlour Deepen Patel Anand
Chandni Parlour Bhavin Patel Anand
Riddhi Siddhi Amul Parlour Mr. Vikas Patel Anand
Vrandavan Amul Parlour Bhavin Bhai Anand
Ashirvaad Amul Parlour Umar Raheja Anand
Vijay Parlour Harshal Bhai Anand
Akshar Parlour Kartik Patel Anand
Maa Krupa Parlour Dinesh Bhai Anand
29 in total

Further on, I also met Mr. Sanjay of Sanprit Distributors to get the distributors point of view into this
business. In general, the investment requisite for them is one cold room (costing 7-9 lakhs) and a
warehouse and a couple of refrigerated vans for transportation of goods. The ground team engaged by
the distributor comprises of 4-5 people in general for catering to 18-20 APOs. Their functioning is
facilitated by means of simple telephonic communication for placement of orders and other details,
making this a versatile system for even the most technologically un-exposed regions of the country.


3.2) P
2

3.2.1) Research Methodology
There is no better way to judge competition than to communicate with them, as customers. So, in
order to analyse the offerings by the two main competitors in Anand Havmor and Vadilal (as
explained to me by Mr. Akhilesh).


3.2.2) Data Sources
I visited 2 Havmor Eaterys and one Vadilal Happinezz store in Anand apart from a few grocery
stores and general stores that stocked ice-cream from Amul, Havmor and Vadilal, posing as a
customer asking for the shopkeepers opinion on the best ice-cream to go for.

15

At the Havmor and Vadilal outlets, the number of offerings that they seemed to have were greater
than Amul both in flavours and variants of ice-cream.

3.2.3) Data Collection and Analysis - Vadilal
Though the concept of Vadilal Happinezz stores seems to have failed to get any attention, and its
future looks bleak, the ice-cream itself is in better condition.

Apart from the prices of the (1+1 free) Party Pack, where they offer 700ml+700ml as compared to
Amuls 750ml+750ml, Vadilal seemed to be very competitive in offering and prices. Here too, the
number of flavours offered by Vadilal is 19 as compared to Amuls 11.

Also, a few shop owners who were friendly enough to divulge more details, repeatedly emphasised
the lengths to which Vadilal was attempting to uproot Amul by offering complimentary deep
freezers (costing about 25,000) to any shop keepers who were willing to stock Vadilal ice-cream in
place of Amul. Such offers had also been made to APO owners, as I found out in my interaction with
them during the earlier stated survey.
Vadilal did not have any particular schemes or offerings for the season (summer is the highest
demand period), but the sheer variety of products was overwhelming as compared to Amul, and very
well-thought out keeping in mind the market. For example, the 5 and 6 Fruit Juicies were a popular
product amongst kids. Technically, though Amul too has one such product (Ice Lickz), almost every
APO owner and retail store complained of never receiving this product despite repeated orders.

Even in the premium ice-cream segment, Vadilals Gourmet is more recognised and has 9 flavours to
offer as compared to Amul Cremes 2, which too, on enquiry, the customer was not aware of.

Also, almost every shop owner brought to light the fact that packaging and defective product
problems, that were ever so common with Amul, were absolutely zero in Vadilal. Every product was
perfectly packed and transported, with no damage or defects during mfg. or logistics whatsoever.

3.2.4) Data Collection and Analysis - Havmor
Havmor is a brand which gives tough competition to Amul in Gujarat, sometimes a step behind,
sometimes a step ahead.

Havmor Eaterys are more well-managed and professionally and efficiently run as compared to
Amuls scooping parlours. Though, the size of the capital required, both initial and working, also
seems to be much higher with a proper fast food kitchen running in these places along with the normal
ice-cream scooping and value addition by means of creating sophisticated ice-cream delicacies.

The number of offerings by Havmor is again much greater in number as compared to Amul. For
example, the number of Party Packs flavours by Havmor is 25 against Vadilals 19 and Amuls 11.
Havmor has 14 flavours of cones as compared to Amuls 3.

The popularity of Amul as a brand and their deep pockets, enabling them to reach even the most
remote markets has given them the advantage over the otherwise superior offering by Havmor.

Havmor too, is popular among retailers for their impeccable packaging and transportation and zero
defect rate in the product.

16

As in the images below, in every store visited, Havmor products in their packaging were neatly
stacked and the shape of the ice-cream perfectly preserved during transport and temperature rise.
But, in case of Amul, the ice-cream candies had just been taken and thrust into boxes, causing them to
lose shape during temperature rise when in transit.


























Havmor Packaging
Amul Packaging
17

IV) Results and Findings
4.1) P
1
After having met the APO owners and interviewed them, 7 issues in total stood up as major concerns
for the Federation to pay attention to
4.1.1) Packaging
a) Over-sized packaging of the Tricone makes it look like the cone
is somehow damaged or spoilt, though it isnt. At many stores, I
purchased Tricones of all flavours and sizes. At first they seemed
like they had lost their shape or were melted or broken inside.
But on opening them, they were found to be in perfect condition.
It seems the oversized wrapper over the ice-cream itself is the
culprit.
b) Empty wrappers and unsealed packages of Mango Dolly seem to
be a problem at the production end, possibly due to rapid
production in a high-demand in the season. This however has
also led to great discontent amongst shop-owners as there seems to be no way out due to a
poor replacement policy.
c) Poor method of stacking and outer cardboard packaging of Mango Dolly seems to be a
consistent problem. Ice-creams look like they
were literally just grabbed in numbers and
dumped into a box and the box sealed. Veteran
shop-owners told me how earlier the ice-cream
used to be neatly stacked one next to the other.
So, when in transit the temperature increased,
the ice-cream would not lose its shape. But now
it did, and that was causing them more loss than
profit as no customer accepts deformed ice-
creams.


4.1.2) Inconsistency of Flavours
Many new flavours are introduced, almost one every month! But the greatest hurdle in them
becoming popular is the uncertainty and inconsistency of their supply. Many shopkeepers complained
about flavours like Pan Nawab, Moroccan Dry Fruit becoming very popular in a short period of
time. But when follow-up customers came in, they had to go home empty-handed leading to the new
flavours losing their quickly acquired fame.


18

4.1.3) Replacement Policy
Though a mechanism has been put in place which comprises of a PCF (Product complaint form) being
sent out to the APOs to enlist any defective or expired products and receive replacement or monetary
credit, the system has not been enforced properly. There are APOs which have not had a PCF reach
them to enlist their grievances for months on a stretch now. This problem needs to be probed into
further to identify the actual point of error.

4.1.4) Distributor Concerns

Many complaints have come forth regarding the methods of operation of the distributors in the area.
There are instances where distributors take orders, claiming that they have the goods when asked by
the APOs, and the bill also being made. But at the time of actual delivery, the complete orders are not
supplied, though the full payment is collected and products are just moved into credit. To the naked
eye, this looks like a move by the distributor to create a positive cash flow cycle for himself, leaving
the APOs discontent and feeling cheated.

4.1.5) Schemes operated by Company not reaching the End-Consumer
In order to check the customer response on the schemes offered
by Amul through the scooping parlours, I visited 3 Scooping
Parlours on the 15
th
of April. Referring to the Sweet 15 scheme
(20 scoop of a particular flavour sold for 15 on the 15
th
of
every month), one of the three parlours (Chandni Parlour),
though had the poster outside, but on request, they refused to
give the scoop of strawberry ice-cream for 15. This is indeed
a grave matter if the offerings and investment by the Federation
is not reaching the consumer because of the shop owners mal-
practices.

4.1.6) Promotion Concerns from the Scooping Parlours
With the APOs outnumbering the Scooping Parlours by almost 9 to 1, Scooping Parlours find
themselves lost in the crowd.
The consumer is mostly unaware of the difference between an APO and a SP, rendering the additional
capabilities of the SPs useless.
People are not aware that we have a proper seating arrangement and that we can serve scoops of
many flavours, on the spot. They just think of us as a fancier Amul Outlet. The customer needs to be
told what more we have for them. Havmor Eaterys are clearly seen as places to sit and eat, Mr.
Deepen Patel of Sai Hari Scooping Parlour tells me.

4.1.7) Lack of communication between the Retailers and the Federation
Multiple times above, I have mentioned that the APOs were unsatisfied and discontent.
How is the discontent of the APOs a problem? They are the face of the Federation and Amul as a
whole to the consumers. Keeping the APOs content and supportive and informed of the activities at
GCMMF should be our utmost priority.
APO owners are important stakeholders in the Federation, and communication with them makes them
feel involved and respected.
Actual photo of poster
outside the parlour on
the mentioned day
19

Some means of communication between the thousands of APOs and Scooping Parlours and the
Federation must be established.
Why is communication important? A very simple example would be the complaint that has come
forth about the new Party Pack packaging.
Not all retailers know that the new ice cream brick packaging, though standardised (white and
blue), still has different colours for different flavours for easy identification on the sidewalls of
the packs. Thus, a positive move by the Federation is being viewed as a disastrous one by the
retailers who complain about the difficulty of having to read the details on each pack before
serving the specific demands of each customer.
Apart from the APO owners who seemed to have figured out the solution (stacking the packs
vertically in the deep freezers to have the coloured side-walls facing up), others are simply
puzzled.
A simple communication highlighting this point to all the APO owners could have prevented
this.

4.2) P
2

Vadilal and Havmor, the two prime competitors in the area, though still behind, are sparing no
expense to catch up to Amul.
In general, the number of offerings by both Vadilal and Havmor are much more than Amul. And in
most products, they are even competitive on the prices.

A Brief Comparison Table

Category Amul Vadilal Havmor
Flavour/
Variants
Flavour/
Variants
Pricing
Stance
Flavour/
Variants
Pricing
Stance
Tricone 3 flavours 6 flavours Costlier 10 flavours/
variants
Competitive
Sundae 7 flavours 10 flavours Competitive 6 flavours Competitive
Fruit and Milk
Candy
2 flavours 5 flavours Competitive 3 flavours Competitive
Fruit Candy 2 flavours 4 flavours Costlier* 4 flavours/
variants
Competitive
Low-end Ice
Candy
2 flavours 2 flavours Competitive 1 flavour Competitive
Party Pack (1+1) 11 flavours 19 flavours Competitive 25 flavours Competitive
Chocobar 6 variants 2 variants Competitive 6 flavours/
variants
Costlier
2 litre Pack 6 flavours 4 flavours Cheaper** 6 flavours*** Competitive
Kulfi 2 flavours 8 flavours Competitive 3 flavours Costlier
Premium 2 flavours 9 flavours Competitive 4 flavours Costlier
Sugar-free cups 2 flavours 3 flavours Costlier 2 flavours Costlier
Sugar-free Party
Pack
2 flavours 1 flavour Costlier 3 flavours Costlier

Table 2
20

* Vadilal Falala is costlier but also offers actual fruit pieces in the ice-cream, making it a superior
offering.
** Vadilal 2 ltr packs are Frozen Dessert.
*** Havmor has 1200ml packs instead if the usual 2000ml packs by Amul and Vadilal.

Apart from the above comparison showing how close the battle is in terms of the offering, most shop
keepers selling Havmor and Vadilal were also very happy with the distributors support and co-
operation and the companies incentives to them to somehow take on Amul in the market.

Most importantly, no packaging issues were ever noticed in Havmor and Vadilal products, and as per
almost every shopkeeper, the defect rate of the products was zero.

Apart from the regular guerrilla tactics by Vadilal and Havmor, there werent any special schemes or
flavours or large scale efforts to challenge Amul in the market.



































21

V) Recommendations
Over so many years and with the kind of infrastructure and financial strength that Amul has, paying
attention to small errors is more important than ever, to reach greater heights of performance,
perfection and delivery.
It takes great effort to go from 0% to 80%. But once we are there, it takes the same amount of effort to
go from 80% to 100%, and that is what will differentiate Amul from international players like Hagen
Dazs and Baskin Robbins in the long run, and truly make it the number one brand in India.

1. The production and operations need to be closely looked into and the errors rectified. Only in
the case of high demand of a particular product, were problems found on the manufacturing
side. This is an obvious indicator of the challenge to cope up with the demand and expand and
upgrade the production facilities and systems at Amul.

2. When a new flavour is released into the market, its acceptance and popularity needs to be
closely watched. If popular, steps should be taken to ensure a continuous supply. If not, it
should be discontinued at the earliest notice to ensure customer loyalty to the brand and its
flavours.

3. An IT mechanism may be put in place to communicate real time orders from APOs to the
respective distributors as well as Amul directly, to ensure more accurate market prediction
and planning.

4. Annual Meetings should be organised with APO owners to earn their allegiance and possibly,
to identify and address their grievances.

5. A periodical may be published and sent out to all APOs to bring them closer to the Federation
and help them understand what GCMMF does and why and how it is in the best interests of
all the stakeholders.

6. The concept of Scooping Parlours needs to be communicated to the consumers through means
of mass media, like radio broadcasts or newspapers to make them realise what more does
Amul have to offer to them.

7. Establishments like Dominos Pizza and Pizza Hut can be approached for tie-ups for ice-
cream served in these places, ensuring a steady market and greater presence.

8. Often, in APOs located in economically backward areas, APO operators put forward the need
for a range of ice-creams that cater to the rural markets of India. With 70% of our population
in rural areas, this is a very big market.

9. The Replacement Policy must be reviewed and properly enforced. No replacement is a cause
of great resentment amongst the APO owners.