After slugging it out in the health and wellness space last year, ice-cream makers are innovating with flavours -- right from the Indian flavours to healthy variants -- and devising new distribution strategies like offering deep freezers to retailers, to boost sales this year.
For instance, Amul, the market leader in the ice cream space, had launched probiotic health and wellness ice creams last year. This season, it has introduced a premium range Exotica which will be available in a one litre pack in three flavours and is priced between Rs 120 and Rs 140. It comes in a tamper-proof pack which can be reused as a container. Further, it has introduced value packs in five flavours to address the mass segment. These two litre packs are competitively priced at Rs 100.
“Consumer insights show that with most of the households now owning bigger refrigerators, there is more storage space available for bigger ice-cream packs,” says R S Sodhi, chief general manager, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, adding: “Besides these packs offer a better value.” Amul has also switched to natural vanilla flavouring in a bid to make its portfolio healthier.
On the retail front, Amul hopes to expand its parlours from the present 4,000 to around 7,000 by the end of this fiscal. “We are also offering deep freezers to retailers under ‘Humara apna deep freezer scheme’ and hope to reach out to 20,000 shops across India this year,” Sodhi said.
Mother Dairy, a subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board, has decided to expand its portfolio with three traditional Indian flavours - Firdausi Kaju Kishmish, Zafrani Kesar Pista and Shahi Meva Malai ranging between Rs 170 and Rs 210 for one litre tub. Further, it will invest behind consolidating its business and channel building. "In order to make the ice cream market grow, it is important to ensure product availability which entails development of infrastructure at retail level,” says Paul Thachil, CEO (Dairy & Food), Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable adding: “Mother Dairy has specific schemes for retailers to help them procure freezers. We also have our own assets and push carts placed in the market to ensure over all increase in ice cream consumption.”
Hindustan Unilever (HUL), on the other hand, has introduced Gelato ice-creams. While at present, its Kwality Walls brand has 30,000 outlets across 20 Indian cities including 250 exclusive parlours, it is also eyeing kiosks in a big way. HUL has an around 10 per cent market share in the Rs 1,200 crore ice-cream segment, while Amul enjoys 37 per cent share.
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While HUL has focused on cities and impulse products like Cornetto, Amul offers a bigger portfolio that helped it penetrate the rural market aggressively. The market has been growing at 10-12 per cent year on year.
Going by the growth, US-based ice cream maker Snowberry USA Inc has also entered the domestic market and will invest $50 million (nearly Rs 250 crore) by 2010 to start its business in India. The company expects to generate a business of $25,000 (nearly Rs 12.5 lakh) a day from each outlet within 6 months of its opening.