• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

R. Balaji

CHENNAI, Feb. 7

AAVIN, the co-operative dairy in Tamil Nadu, is on a `competition mode' to take on the private sector and address changes in the market place. It is banking on quality, customer service and expanding product base to consolidate its position as a market leader while trying to instil in the dairy farmers the need to bow to market-place reality to survive.

According to Mr R. Balakrishnan, Managing Director, Tamil Nadu Co-operative Milk Producers Federation, the co-operative has embarked on a broad-based image building and quality consciousness exercise from the farm level to retail outlets including the chilling and processing centres.

The federation, more popularly known as Aavin, procures around 18 lakh litres milk per day. It could fluctuate by one lakh litre between the lean and flush seasons, he said. However, the supply and demand notwithstanding, procurement prices and sale price are rigid _ factors that have a telling impact on its viability. To address this issue, Aavin had embarked on a programme to sensitise the farmers to the needs of commercial style of operations, in their long-term interest, he said.

As a part of a clean-milk campaign it has suggested guidelines to farmers to reduce microbial contamination and ensure longer shelf life, Mr Balakrishnan said. In addition, use of stainless steel vessels to collect and transport the milk is being encouraged. A programme is in place to fund purchases of these vessels with farmers' societies and the milk unions bearing a third of the cost each with the balance to be borne by the farmer, he said.

On the marketing side, Aavin sells about 6.8 lakh litre milk per day, and is in the process of regaining the 60,000 to 65,000-litre drop in sales following the hike in milk prices in December 2001. During the first month itself it has gained about 15,000 litres, and Aavin hopes to not only regain the lost ground but also hike up sales to eight lakh litres over the next few months, he said.

Mr Balakrishnan said customer service and improved marketing would be the main areas of focus. During February, customer-meets will be organised to obtain suggestions to improve service. Staff meetings have been held at the depot level, and steps have been initiated to improve the condition of booths and vending machines. Aavin is also considering establishment of customer call centres with interactive voice response facility, he said.

In tune with these initiatives, Aavin has adopted the National Dairy Development Board initiative to introduce a mnemonic symbol for cooperative dairies. The logo to enable easy recall of the cooperative brand is also a sign of the cooperatives' commitment to quality and customer satisfaction, he said. To back this up, special steps have been initiated to ensure leak-proof and clean packaging, Mr Balakrishnan said.

An expert committee that has looked into the issues related to packaging will soon submit its report. This will suggest measures to improve existing packages and add new ones, he said.

To enhance reach and expand markets, the cooperative dairy has decided to intensify marketing efforts in the secondary cities and rural areas. Direct selling will be stepped up, distributorship network will be strengthened and the efforts are on to help women self-help-groups take up marketing of Aavin products on a commercial basis, he said.

In Chennai, Aavin is planning `up-market' outlets to attract the youth. Apart from take-away, these will be eating out places where along with the regular beverages, cheese-based products like pizzas would be available, he said.

The products dairy now located at Ayanavaram will soon be shifted to a new facility in Ambattur.

More than Rs one crore has been spent on this facility to enable production of larger range of ice creams and increase output of other milk-based sweets, he said.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section
Rubber market improves

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line