This Indian Ice-cream Brand Aims a Turnover of INR 500 crore In the Next 5 Years Having grown more than five-fold in the last 10 years, the home-grown company is betting on country-wide expansion and rebranding to reach greater heights.
By Debroop Roy
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For lovers of ice-cream, the very first memory of tasting the cold sweetness often stays. Mumbai-based Naturals Ice Cream's plan to rebrand played around this nostalgia that people associate with their products.
What began in 1984 in a 300 square feet store in Juhu has now expanded to over 100 stores across the country. In the last fiscal year, the company recorded a turnover of INR 157.57 crore, a more than five-fold growth from a decade earlier.
Reaching the 500-crore Mark
As second-generation entrepreneurs, the two sons of founder Raghunandan Kamath have expanded the business rapidly in the last few years, with a plan to open more than 125 stores in the next five and take the turnover to over INR 500 crore. The company has moved from being a regional brand to growing its presence across the country with outlets in the Northern and Eastern parts of India.
The company, as part of its expansion, plans to double its production capacity.
"...the plan is to shift our production facility from Charkop in Kandivali to a larger space," Srinivas Kamath, director of retail at Naturals' holding company, said, adding that it was a work in progress that they were on track to fulfill. Srinivas, one of the founder's two sons, joined the business in 2010, followed by brother Siddhanth three years later.
In its aim and need to grow across, Naturals has created a separate retail arm -- Kamath Natural Retail Pvt Ltd -- to take care of franchise-based outlets. The company said it had hired best-in-class retail professionals from across the industry to fuel this growth.
Naturals NOW
To create a differentiated experience for the curious, the company this year announced the creation of Naturals NOW, a space in Juhu -- the brand's birthplace -- that serves ice-cream straight off the churners. Commemorating the brand's 35th anniversary, Naturals NOW is also the place to taste the newest flavors and a chance to get away from the bustle of Mumbai for a few hours.
Need For Change
When Raghunandan Kamath opened his first store nearly 30 years ago, his idea was to sell fruit and dry fruit-based ice cream that would cater to the Indian palate. Fast forward to 2019 and there are numerous brands trying to emulate the success of Naturals.
To differentiate itself from the competition that has come up, Naturals went through a transitional period where it rebranded itself with a new logo designed keeping in mind the connection required with the millennial. The company also added a tagline, "Taste the original", essentially calling out to the original brand of ice-cream and consequently playing to the nostalgia factor.
