Ice-cream's hot ahead of monsoon

The pre monsoon showers don't seem to have a dampening effect on Ice cream companies. The Rs 2,000-crore ice-cream market is still growing at 28%, and is now all set to expand with companies such as Baskin Robbins, Amul, HLL, Mother Diary and Nirula's working overtime.

From home delivering ice creams, introducing new flavours to piggybacking on the mall culture, companies are leaving no stones unturned to gain valuable marketshare. A mix of aggression and innovation seem to be the key to their plans.

Baskin Robbins India is planning to home deliver. Baskin Robbins India & S-Asia CEO Pankajj Chaturvedi told SundayET, "We already do it in Mumbai. And with the infrastructure in place, we will soon be starting operations in other cities. Not only this, we are introducing five new flavours every month , and we are growing at 40% y-o-y."

Interestingly, market leader Amul, with 37% market share, also has the home delivery option in place through its website. Amul's assistant general manager, marketing, Jayen Mehta says, "We will also look at this option aggressively."

Other than home delivery, ice cream market is also looking to grow through other means. Taking advantage of the growing number of malls is one. For instance, Amul, is all set to come up with 10,000 Amul parlours in the coming three years. Right now, Amul has 800 parlours and it has plans to expand the number to 3,000 by the end of the year.

Baskin Robbins India CEO Mr Chaturvedi says, "We are looking at opening 100 outlets every year. This year, from 200 outlets we are planning to expand to 300."

Hindustan Lever (HLL) is also planning to extend Unilever's retail brand 'Kwality Walls Swirls' parlours with an eye on the growing number of shopping malls in India. An HLL spokesperson says, "We have a three-pronged strategy in place to increase market share." Right now HLL has 30 'Kwality Walls Swirls' parlours in place.

Mother Dairy is also planning a presence in malls and other retail outlets. So is fast food chain Nirula's. Sudipta Sen Gupta, senior VP, marketing, Nirula's says, "We have 38 restaurants and will expand to 150 in next 2 years. These new outlets will have ice-cream kiosks in malls, express outlets operating at airports and railway station in metro cities."

According to industry reports, another global ice cream parlour chain, New Zealand Natural is embarking on an expansion plan to open 100 outlets by 2009. Following the franchisee model similar to Baskin Robbins', the Sydney-based firm, which has tied up with Manju Enterprises, is focusing on metros and mini-metros and plans to take on the established players with over 73 flavours at a price range of Rs 40-150.

Source: The Economic Times John Sarkar, TNN Jun 24, 2007
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