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We’re Unaffected By Consumption Slowdown, Says Amul’s Sodhi

Dairy company Amul has not witnessed a slowdown in consumption, the company’s Managing Director RS Sodhi said.

Packets of Amul butter are displayed in Chandigarh, Punjab, India. (Photographer: Sanjit Das/Bloomberg)
Packets of Amul butter are displayed in Chandigarh, Punjab, India. (Photographer: Sanjit Das/Bloomberg)

India’s largest maker of dairy products said it’s untouched by the consumption slowdown that’s affected everyone from the makers of cars to consumer goods.

“Nobody has reduced consumption,” said RS Sodhi, managing director of Gujarat Co-Operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd., the maker of Amul branded milk to ice-creams. “People may have shifted from one category to another. The average Indian is earning and spending more.”

The company’s revenue grew 26 percent in the first five months of this year, Sodhi told BloombergQuint in an interview, adding consumption is growing.

The Indian economy slowed in the quarter ended June on the back of weakening private consumption. Private consumption rose 3.1 percent in the three-month period compared with 7.2 percent in the quarter ended March, according to government data.

Sodhi, however, said there was a reduction in inventory, adding it’s an “adjustment”. These adjustments will fall into place in the next quarter, he said.

The federation also expects rural demand to grow in the next two quarters. With good monsoon and increase in prices of agricultural produce, rural population will have more money to spend, Sodhi said.

In financial year 2018-19 GCMMF’s clocked a turnover of Rs 33,150 crore, 13 percent higher than the previous year, according to a company statement.

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