Exclusive Interview with Mastermind Behind Rs.1,500 crore Dairy Empire

• Resilience: The power of perseverance in overcoming adversity and achieving success. 💪

• Adaptability: The importance of pivoting business models to seize new opportunities. 🌿

• Innovation: Investing in technology can provide a competitive edge in your industry. 💻

• Social Impact: The benefits of building strong relationships with suppliers and adopting a socio-economic business model. 🤝

• Relevance: The necessity of staying adaptable in the face of evolving consumer trends. 🥛

Humble Beginnings and Early Struggles 🌿 

Urvashi: Your story is quite interesting but unexpected. The origins of Gyan Dairy is truly a testament of your entrepreneurial spirit. 🙌 And I would love for our audience to hear it from you.

Jai: It is actually a very interesting story. 😊 After graduating in 2001, I joined our very established family business of tobacco manufacturing. Later, my dad wanted me to move to Lucknow, to operate an existing reputed dairy company called Gyan Dairy for one year on lease and then, to set up our own venture. It was 2003, I was newly married and pretty young, around 23 years old. Being new to the nuances of business, I made many mistakes, failed miserably, lost a lot of money, and had to move back to our hometown. My father

it's not good to lose morale at such a young age and suggested that I return to the family business.

Gyan Choupal: Empowering Farmers and Creating Social Impact 🤝 

Urvashi: The Gyan Choupal meetings with farmers seem to have been a total masterstroke. 🤝 You seldom see businesses caring about the source of their raw materials. But, you eliminated middlemen from your supply chain and directly dealt with farmers so they were holistically benefited - not just monetarily - through high-quality cattle feed. 🐮 You beautifully matched social impact with business and still made profits while ensuring all stakeholders were benefited. How did you crack that code? 🧩

Jai: I can say it's no science or invention of mine. It is the classic Dr. Kurien cooperative dairy model. The value system is that you don't just pay higher prices to buy milk from farmers. You create a bond with them. 🤝 Since we started out in our native district, that socio-economic model culture, as taught to the world by Dr. Kurien, was imbibed from day one rather than just an economic model. We tried to follow it to the tee. The problem was the dairy ecosystem was not very developed in these areas of UP. Extension services were lacking. The government was willing to support but had no means to disseminate good services. So we tied up with the government for things like vaccination of animals for diseases, and cattle insurance where the government paid half and the farmer paid half while we provided the services. 💉🐄

Leveraging Technology for Quality and Shelf Life 💻

Urvashi: Jai, you have led the dairy industry in Eastern UP with technology. 💻 When you acquired Gyan Dairy, you upgraded the equipment for enhancement. What do you think about pasteurization and emerging technologies like high-pressure processing or pulse electric field in enhancing the shelf life of dairy products in modern dairies? 🥛

Jai: Enhancing shelf life does help and pasteurization itself does that. But as you go further in the value chain, distributing pasteurized milk to rural areas becomes difficult. The new emerging innovation is UHT (ultra-heat treated) milk which has a 3-6 month shelf life without refrigeration and is available in Tetra Pak and poly packs. 📦 It is gaining popularity in rural areas facing milk shortage, especially post-COVID, as UHT milk has reduced the dependence on milk powders for tea. However, as supply chains get enhanced, higher milk shelf life is not the main focus anymore. Instead, the shift is more on the backend to get a lower microbial load in milk. 🔬