NMIMS Global Access
School for Continuing Education (NGA-SCE)
Course: Merchandising Management
Internal Assignment Applicable for June 2023 Examination
Assignment Marks: 30
Instructions:
- All Questions carry equal marks.
- All Questions are compulsory
- All answers to be explained in not more than 1000 words for question 1 and 2 and for question 3 in not more than 500 words for each subsection. Use relevant examples, illustrations as far as possible.
- All answers to be written individually. Discussion and group work is not advisable.
- Students are free to refer to any books/reference material/website/internet for attempting their assignments, but are not allowed to copy the matter as it is from the source of reference.
- Students should write the assignment in their own words. Copying of assignments from other students is not allowed.
- Students should follow the following parameter for answering the assignment questions.
For Theoretical Answer
| Assessment Parameter | Weightage |
| Introduction | 20% |
| Concepts and Application | 60% |
| related to the question | |
| Conclusion | 20% |
For Numerical Answer
| Assessment Parameter | Weightage |
| Understanding and usage | 20% |
| of the formula | |
| Procedure / Steps | 60% |
| Correct Answer & | 20% |
| Interpretation |
- Create a theme for a sports store like the jungle of the trekking on the fort which stands out
and what sort of variety of merchandise would you stock in that shop? (10 Marks)
- Design a store for tiles, marble and granite and which products do you think they can add to
increase their basket of products? (10 Marks)
NMIMS Global Access
School for Continuing Education (NGA-SCE)
Course: Merchandising Management
Internal Assignment Applicable for June 2023 Examination
- Case Study
Amul bucks pandemic trend:100products launched since 2020
The adage ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ fits well for brand Amul, which is owned and marketed by the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF).
During the Covid-19 nationwide lockdown, which lasted for several months from March 2020, the leading dairy cooperative brand ensured seamless supply of milk and milk products across its markets.
At a time when other food and beverages (F&B) brands took a hit during the lockdown, Amul was on the product launching spree.
From immunity boosting milk in variants of turmeric, ginger and tulsi to Indian sweets like mohanthal, barfi, kaju katli and ladoo, Amul made the most of the lockdown by launching around 33 products and variants then. Till date Amul has launched more than 100 products across diary and non-diary categories since Covid.
The latest one is frozen french-fries produced by its member diary Bana’s newly-commissioned potato processing plant. The diary major is transforming into full-fledged F&B and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) player.
Amul launched a litany of diversified products such as flour, edible oils, bakery products, carbonated drinks, high protein beverages, chocolates, potato-based products, diary based frozen snacks, honey and even peanut spreads.
Yet, for Amul, this is not a deviation from its core strengths, rather building on them. “Primarily, most of the new product launches are milk based but to help double the income of our farmer members, non-dairy products have also been launched. They include honey, atta
NMIMS Global Access
School for Continuing Education (NGA-SCE)
Course: Merchandising Management
Internal Assignment Applicable for June 2023 Examination
(flour), and potato based products, among other things,” said Jayen Mehta, Chief operating office (COO), Amul.
According to Mehta, Amul is expanding its horizons into non-milk based food categories keeping its focus on doubling the income of the federation’s 3.6 million farmers. It procures 28 million liters of milk per day from them.
“Keeping the milk business as the backbone, other food categories are being inducted to help our own farmer members. This we are heading towards becoming well-rounded food and beverage company. The brand connection becomes stronger, both with the producer as well as the consumer,” Mehta added.
A dairy farmer member of Amul is encouraged to engage in as many ancillary farming activities with the assurance of Amul’s brand and market: As such, Amul has a strong base of 3.6 million milk producers across 18,600 villages of Gujarat. These people are members of its dairy cooperatives.
According to GCMMF managing director (MD) R S Sodhi, the lockdown only expedited the dairy major’s move to build its product portfolio in diary and non-diary packaged products.
“During the lockdown, consumers have been opting for packed foods and went for trustworthy brands. With all the launches, be it immunity-boosting milk variants or bakery products, we have stuck to our core values of offering quality and affordable products. Of course milk continues to be our main focus,” Sodhi had told Business Standard earlier.
Amul has gone on to add roughly 20 new manufacturing plants. Total number of plants, pan Indian, stands at 94.
Its product-launching spree is set to continue even as Amul looks to add organic agriculture produce in more staples like atta, rice and pulses.
NMIMS Global Access
School for Continuing Education (NGA-SCE)
Course: Merchandising Management
Internal Assignment Applicable for June 2023 Examination
It would also roll out high-protein products like protein shakes, protein water, protein chocolate, protein ice-cream and protein yogurt in the next few months.
Also on the cards are more milk packing plants across India to cater to the growing milk demand. Around 8-10 milk packaging stations of at least 100,000 units capacity each are getting added each year.
The month-end will see Prime Minister Narendra Modi launch GCMMF’s latest expanded cheese production facility at Sabar Diary. Elsewhere, Amul is putting up a new milk powder plant, UHT plant and five new ice-cream plants in the near future.
Typically, Amul incurs a capital expenditure (capex) of ₹ 800-1,000 crore annually for capacity expansion.
The expansion plan is also being executed at the distribution level with Amul adding more distributors in towns less than 10,000 population. It is expanding its branch network to more than 78 branches across the country.
“We have also expanded our Amul parlour network to more than 10,000 now. Amul distribution network and supply chain worked in an uninterrupted manner during the pandemic and that has made our business more lucrative,” said Mehta.
It is on the back of this expansion – in terms o product portfolio manufacturing capacity and distribution that Amul is pegging a turnover of ₹ 55,000 crore for FY23, up to ₹ 46,481 crore in FY22.
Expansion spree
- Amul added 100 SKUs since April 2020.
- Procures 28 million liters of milk per day.
- It has over 3.6 million members farmers across over 18,000 villages.
- Amul added 20 plants and now has 94 units pan India.
NMIMS Global Access
School for Continuing Education (NGA-SCE)
Course: Merchandising Management
Internal Assignment Applicable for June 2023 Examination
- Amul’s annual turnover stood at ₹ 46,481 crore in FY2021-22.
- Estimates a turnover of ₹ 55,000 crore for FY23.
Questions
a. What advantage did Amul get by launching products during the pandemic? How is it
helping the Amul brand to expand? (5 marks)
b. How has Amul expanded over a period of time? How will Amul get an advantage over its
competitors and what would be the icing on the cake to increase profits? (5 marks)
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