Interviews on impact of recession on dairy industry

THE CURRENT economic recession has affected a majority of the sectors. The dairy industries are also not left untouched. But how has the Indian dairy industry fared. Vishal Gajjar, maintenance engineer at Mother Dairy, Baroda, shares his views on the issues.

Q: Has recession affected your organisation? Kindly mention the growth of your organisation before and after recession i.e., changes in the past 14-18 months.

A: Out of 15-16 lakh kgs per day (LKPD) of milk that Mother Dairy sells in the national capital region, 30-40 per cent (average during the year) is the milk reconstituted from skimmed milk powder (SMP) and other solids. Moreover, more than a quarter of GCMMF's sales (about 13,000 tonnes) were being made to Mother Dairy. Average turnover of mother dairy is Rs 1500 crore and the prices have increased not decreased.

Q: International data reveals that dairy sector is in slump. The dairy markets in Australia, New Zealand, the US and the European market got hit due to this economic slowdown. How has this slowdown impacted the Indian dairy and specifically your organisation?

A: There is no change in exports, it is the same. Small organisations might have got affected due to recession but it has not made much difference as far as big organisations are concerned.

Q: What kind of government help has been received to protect the interest of farmers and milk producers in this recession era?

A: Mother Dairy is a private organisation so Mother Dairy has got no help in particular. However, GCMMF do get certain grants from government.

Q: Please mention if your organisation has any specific plan to deal with recession in the short and long-term?

A: Despite the organisational efforts, there is a large unorganised sector in dairy industry. So the current plan for the organisation is to cover the unorganised market by buying milk from them and increase the market share of the organisation.

Q: Is there any difference in marketing and communication strategy used by your organisation before the recession set in and after the recession? If yes kindly mention.

A: There is no change as far as marketing is concerned. It has in fact increased in all the senses. Even advertisement has increased.

Q: What changes have you made in branding and promotional strategy after the slow down (are there any areas where there is cost cutting done as far as branding and promotional strategy is concerned)?

A: Promotion has increased. Now the new ad about tetra pack is also out as the company has deal to buy new machine for tetra pack and its capacity will be more than 1000 packs per hour.

Q: Kindly communicate the medium your company stresses for promotion? Eg ATL or BTL?

A: The organisation uses both ATL and BTL activity and there is no change in any of the strategies due to recession.

Q: Does your company have any specific mission to fulfil in next 5-10 years?

A: Mother Dairy’s turnover has been growing at the rate of 20 per cent (CAGR) over the last three years. Mother Dairy plans to achieve a turnover of US$ 1 billion by the end of 2009.

Q: Milk being the primary need and with the rising prices of milk, affordability is still an issue. What is your take on that (like chhota butter pack, are there any mini packs for other products in future)?

A: There will be products available in small tetra packs in future to support small buyers.

http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=15771163

Cyber World is set to rule Media

THE THREAD pacifying relations, accelerating business, satisfying the urge of information, disseminating thoughts and creating an aura of connectivity, the only tool on which each of us depends is Internet. Keeping in mind the ever growing cyber world, the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication for the first time organised 'National Cyber Meet' giving insightful views from prominent personalities linked with the Internet world.

The first speaker Kiruba Shankar, Founder and Chief Executive Officer gave his passionate views on networking and knowledge. Sharing his initial struggle when he aspired to become an RJ and was rejected all four times he went for an interview, he expressed, “It is not necessary that all our skills are acknowledge every time by everyone, it is also possible that they might not get acknowledge ever by someone but if one is really passionate about his work, he can always find his way.” That is how in his initial days he started 'Kiruba Show' and moving to his passion of writing blogs, today he is renowned name is blogging world.

The session followed by Shivam Vig, the former Tehalka Journalist and nationally renowned blogger, discussing the criticism going on in the print media against the writing blogs. He mentioned various instances when leading newspapers wrote against blog writing and discussed about the authenticity and credibility of writers.

Also at the end of the first session there was hot conversation between two beliefs where Chitnis believed that youths today is 'arm chair revolutionary', who do not want to wake up and physically participate in fighting against odds, while Shivam had countered the argument quoting examples like 'Pink Chaddi Campaign' that the instant of posting the complaints and blogging itself is making the scenario more aware and revolutionary amongst the youth.

The discussion of the first session ended up with Jasmeen, the owner of the blog 'blank noise', dealing with the issue of street harassment to women. She shared her own experiences where she faced harassment at several times. She felt the need to talk and raise voice against the insecurity as far as a woman is concerned. Lot of questions from the audience regarding giving importance to social issues in blogs to the concept of youth being arm chair revolutionary and need to actually wake up and take a call were raised, which shows the increasing interest in such kind of events amongst youth.

Second half of the day covered marketing fundas of Cyber world. Names like Atul Chitnis -Chief Product Officer-Geodesic Limited discussed the evolution of technology by showing technological devices like e-book reader and iPhone, which would soon replace the notebook computers.

Chitnis forced youngster to visualise their tough future, which might be demanding registration fees to register on Yahoo or Google. Rajesh Lalwani, Founder and Director Pitchh. com, spoke about the relevance of narrow casting to reach the intended audience and how the new age consumer is not just consuming but now owning, participating and publishing content as well. Further J Mahadevan,VP-Products, Bharatmatrimony.com also added to the cyber knowledge.

Rashmi Dhanwani, lady behind the campaigns like Bell Bajao, screened some of the ads of Bell Bajao and explained the entire campaign, which gave a new perspective to students. Namit Bimbhat, Chief Executive Officer- Switch Media talked about evolving face of online video: global learning and relevance for India and how online videos were a lucrative prospect for educational institutes, destination portals, travel, radio portals and broadcasters.

Shiv Dravid from The Viewspaper spoke about the fourth estate in the society. Media is considered the ‘guardians of democracy’ to work in tandem with the executive, legislative and judiciary estates. Unfortunately the traditional media has gone weak in this matter and that’s the reason why cyber media is taking that place as it can combine radio, TV and print.

http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=15763973

Let's go green this Environment Day

WANDERING ON the beauty of clouds on the day of first rain, the smell of sand soothing the soul and the falling drops from the green leaves seem to freshen the life. But how long will this beauty of nature last with our attitude towards environment?

Pollution, dirt and garbage are all the gift of man to nature. How long can one expect the nature to soothe life when human beings are forcing it to get harsher day by day? 

The result is already what human beings have observed. Melting of ice, scorching heat, and no wonder even the cycle of seasons have changed, what we call “Global Warming”. There was not much winter observed even in the hilly places like Pune. Neither the monsoon hits the ground on time. Due to excess of pollution, the result is excess heat and new diseases. Malaria, virus, yellow fever, TB, Bird flu, and swine flu are all that humans have given invitation to. The decreasing greenery on the land is a major concern.

Achal Rangaswamy, (President- Bell Ceramics) says “everybody likes the colour green as long as it resembles money. We need to fall in love with the green that gives us life, the most natural green” and also believes that one should not go green with envy but should go green to protect this world. 

In fact, we need to save this world and henceforth we can also expect Bell Ceramics coming up with some activity to go green on the World Environment Day.

Film like “Zor Lagaa Ke Haiya” is coming up where Mithun Chakraborty is playing a role of a vagabond. This film is also based on the theme of saving trees. NGO’s activity for plantation of trees will be seen boosting on its way and this concern for environment also invites marketing initiatives like the concept of having eco-friendly homes with greenery in lawns which was never heard before. Use of CNG to combat air pollution, encouraging use of solar heaters in houses, and the concept of solar cars are great ways to help save our environment.

Despite all the efforts done genuinely or just as a publicity or popularity stunts by different parties or corporate, what is indeed needed here is one’s own desire to contribute a little towards society. Every drop counts in forming an ocean and that is all what is needed. If each one of us decides not to litter the environment and just preserving what is left out in environment, it would prove to be of great help for the sustenance of environment.

http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=15771198