Amul's widening shelf: How the storied dairy major under MD Jayen S. Mehta is aiming to disrupt the foods space

No matter how large or successful a company is, it has to constantly map the competitive landscape and reinvent and reposition itself when needed. And so it is with the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which runs the iconic Amul brand of milk and milk products and has been synonymous with milk for decades. Today, the Rs 55,000-crore GCMMF—which gets 96 per cent of its revenues from milk and milk products—is in the midst of a pivot, going beyond its core and staking claim for a chunk of the foods pie. With its massive farmer connect and mega distribution network already in place, Amul, under MD Jayen S. Mehta, is putting in place a strategy that involves cashing in on adjacencies and grabbing the opportunity in organic food products. Not surprisingly, as a consequence of this move, the revenue target for FY26 is Rs 1 lakh crore.

In our cover story, Krishna Gopalan examines the key elements of Amul’s new strategy and how the co-operative giant is joining the dots to make it work. The foods market is a fragmented one, and Amul believes its distribution clout can bring smart returns. However, it’s not as if this will come at the cost of its core strength of milk and milk products. The dairy business is also being reoriented by entering new categories and offering more within existing ones. Sweets, ice creams, health beverages, shakes and smoothies, fresh cream, flavoured milk and chocolates figure among categories that it sees as high-growth areas, while potential disruptors are sugar-free products, probiotics, organic foods, cookies, fresh bakery products, potato snacks and even sports drinks, among others. While Amul has been growing on a large base and a wide portfolio, it reckons the foods foray will help it sustain the growth momentum. “If we get it right, we can be in every product of the kitchen,” Mehta tells BT.

Away from milk and foods and into the world of stock markets, Ashish Rukhaiyar gets you the story of how a good initiative—the creation of a separate listing and trading platform for small and medium enterprises—is being exploited by shady operators to manipulate prices, leading to losses for unsuspecting investors. A coterie of operators and merchant bankers is at work, pushing up oversubscription levels, jacking up listing prices, and then making their getaway as investors take the hit later. Markets regulator Sebi has taken note of this phenomenon, and strict regulations may soon be announced to curb this malpractice.

Meanwhile, as the curtain falls on India’s historic G20 presidency, Surabhi and Nidhi Singal examine the way forward in two key areas of impact—the reform of multilateral development banks (MDB) and the globalisation of India’s digital public infrastructure (DPI). Business Today TV’s Managing Editor Siddharth Zarabi talks to N.K. Singh and Lawrence Summers, the authors of the two reports on MDB reforms, while Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar explains how the India DPI is being taken forward.