Amul to take its outlet count to 10,000 soon

Indian dairy cooperative, Amul is looking at fast expansion of its ice cream outlets and parlours. Known countrywide with its popular slogan ‘The Taste of India’, it has planned to open 10,000 Amul Preferred Outlets and one thousand Amul Icecream Parlours in the near future. At present, Amul has 7200 outlets and 800 parlours. The expansion will be based on franchise mode.

RS Sodhi, Managing Director of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd, maker of Amul brand products, says, “We prefer the franchisee owned and franchisee managed model rather than any other model. We feel that this actually brings about the enterprising skills of the individuals on the table. The kind of product range Amul offers is unparallel and most of our exclusive retail outlets thrive due to this huge variety on offer. Our franchising model is pretty low-cost in nature and therefore we remain the largest franchisors in the branded packaged food segment.”

Speaking further on the growing ice cream sector, RS Sodhi, tells Franchise India, “As the industry is getting matured we see the future to be led by more functional variants of ice-creams. One would now find icecreams catering to specific segments and would include probiotic range, sugar free range, richer ice-creams with higher fat contents, luxury and premium take home range among others. Thus players seeking to acquire firm foot in the market would need to be more innovative in their offerings and would also have to reach out to the places which were subserviced erstwhile.”