Talking to Indian Cooperative on the issue of ongoing controversy over Amul advt, GCMMF Managing Director R S Sodhi clarified that being a cooperative Amul follows a business ethics no private players can afford to.
Readers would recall a case has been filed in the Bombay High Court seeking withdrawal of the Amul ad from the public domain as soon as possible. The Kwality Walls a well known frozen dessert brand owned by Hindustan Unilever has petitioned the court in this connection.
Countering the charges GCMMF Managing Director R S Sodhi said the Amul advt doesn’t name any specific brand or company; it only seeks to make consumers aware of differences between milk-based ice creams and vegetable oil-based frozen desserts. The latter Sodhi said are being sold in the name of milk based ice creams.
Sodhi further said we are a cooperative company which is working in the interest of 36 lakh producers and our objective is not to earn profit but these private companies are solely driven by their profit motive.
Assailing them for their unethical calculations, GCMMF MD said these companies use vegetable fat or oil costing Rs 60-70 per kg as a key ingredient for frozen desserts while dairy fat used for ice cream costs Rs. 400 per kg. The difference in prices speaks volumes, Sodhi pointed out.
By using low cost ingredients, these companies are misleading the consumers who are looking for real ice creams, Sodhi charged.
Sources familiar with the development suggest, however, the ad controversy is not unexpected with the summer months beginning when ice creams add up a huge- business a on the market.