Jayen Mehta is a very busy man. Understandably so, as it is no mean feat to give legs to India’s prime minister’s vision of making Amul “the taste of the world.” Mehta, a campus recruit of IRMA (Institute of rural management, Anand), joined Amul as a trainee in 1991.
Three decades later, as its managing director, he is the custodian of the brand Amul —India’s largest FMCG company with annual brand sales turnover of US $9.6 billion, with a presence in every category milk can be processed into. Under Mehta’s aegis, the co-operative has tied up with the Michigan Milk Producers Association, to sell fresh milk in the United States of America under the Amul brand name.
Ascending to the top is one thing, but remaining at the top is the real challenge. Whether it be changing consumer demands, the evolving marketplace, or crisis situations, Mehta has never stopped innovating — to plug the gaps in the market and to meet rapidly changing consumer food preferences. Proteins, probiotics and organics are some of the company’s recent extensions.
To combat content overload and attention fragmentation, Mehta has steered his team to create relevant content that can deliver personalised experiences across multiple touchpoints. For instance, ‘shop.amul.com’, Amul’s direct online e-shop/e-commerce platform, has fulfilled over 100,000 orders and built a database of over 90,000 satisfied customers since inception. Mehta has ensured the tagline, Amul doodh pita hai India (India drinks Amul milk) instills cultural pride in the collective consciousness of the Indian consumers with effective advertising and strategic alliances. Most of Amul’s advertising celebrates women dairy farmers.
The most recent campaign, “Moochon mein taav” campaign was an ode to female farmers for being the champions of the dairy industry, and to break the common misconception that all farmers are men. Committed to engaging with youth through sports, Mehta has ensured strategic partnerships with numerous national and international sports teams and events. Most recently, Amul became official sponsors of the Sri Lankan men’s cricket team for T20 World Cup 2024.
The company has an on-ground association with the WPL (Women’s Premier League) and TV associations with the prestigious French Open, and Wimbledon tennis tournaments. Additionally, it has established TV and digital deals with the Asian Games and Asia Cup. Mehta supports Amul’s bid to become a key player in India’s ‘go-green’ revolution and aims to become a key player in the circular economy with the launch of a fully automated bio-CNG generation and bottling plant in Banas Dairy, Gujarat.
