A day after HT reported the clash of interests between two milk brands, Verka and Amul, in the tricity, Punjab’s own Verka on Wednesday welcomed the rival, saying “more the merrier”.
Verka wrote on Hindustan Times’ Punjab Twitter handle, “@HTPunjab Thank you for the coverage. We Welcome @Amul_Coop to the tricity. Customer is the king, so more the merrier!”
Officials at the Milkfed have confirmed that the account from which the tweet was sent is the official handle of Verka.
Read also: Milk war on as Amul sets foot in tricity, Verka feels the heat
Amul has started supplying about 25,000 litres milk per day in the tricity recently, which is considered a strong market for Punjab State Co-operative Milk Producers’ Federation Limited (Milkfed) that owns brand Verka.
HT had on Tuesday reported how Verka was rolling out an aggressive marketing strategy to counter Amul and how a billboard war had picked up between the two giants in SAS Nagar.
Amul is primarily tapping into the unorganised milk sector which as per an estimate is about 15-20 lakh litres per day. The organised sector — about 5-lakh litres a day — is dominated by Verka.
The Punjab brand has now decided to improve procurement, offer better rates to dairy farmers and consolidate its dealer network.
Verka claims its milk is being procured from local dairy farmers, whereas other players in the market (read Amul) are procuring it from contractors.
Amul made its first plant functional in Batala in Gurdaspur district in November 2014. Most of its procurement is being done from Batala from where the milk is sent for packaging to a plant in Khamano in Fatehgarh Sahib district.
