Indian dairy giant Amul appoints Jayen Mehta as new managing director

INDIA – Amul, one of the largest dairy brands in India, has appointed Jayen Mehta to succeed RS Sodhi as managing director after serving the company for 40 years.

The board of Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) which owns Amul, saw Jayen Mehta, who currently serves the brand as COO, as the right candidate to take charge of the company.

 “For the last 3-4 years, I was contemplating relinquishing my responsibility as MD. I was on an extension for the last two years and had requested the board to relieve me,” said Sodhi.

Sodhi, now 64 years, joined Amul in 1982 as a sales marketer. He moved up in the organisation and worked in various positions before being appointed managing director in 2011.

He is an alumnus of the Institute of Rural Management (IRMA) with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering from CTAE. He also received an honorary degree of Doctor of Science from Anand Agriculture University.

When Sodhi first joined Amul, its turnover was ₹151 crore (US$ 12M) with just six member unions and they handled 12 lakh litres (1.2 million litres) of milk per day.

When he took over as managing director in 2010 the turnover was at ₹8,000 crore (US$978 million) and the company closed its most recent financial year at ₹72,000 crore (US$8.8 billion).

Sodhi will continue to be associated with the dairy sector as he helped expand Amul’s network by adding seven new district-level dairy cooperation unions.

“It was a wonderful experience. I got the opportunity to meet some of the finest people from across the world, and serve farmers of Gujarat,” he said in a statement to Mint Newspaper.

The Amul cooperative was founded in 1946 with two small villages collecting a little over 250 litres of milk per day. In 2020-2021, it recorded 29 million litres of milk on a peak operating day.

Jayen Mehta on the other hand, now the new MD, has been associated with Amul for 32 years. He too is an alumnus of IRMA and a gold medalist from Sardar Patel University.

He has also served as the in-charge managing director at Amul Dairy from time to time.

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