Just like that last mango bar back in the early 90s the answers to why the industry is underperforming aren’t on the surface. There hiding beneath numbers. FY-2011 the per capita ice cream consumption around the world looked like this:
U.S 23 ltrs/annum (Now we know why they came up with a Yo Mamma show)
Sweden 18 ltrs/annum (make it 18 extremely tasty ltrs)
China 1.9 ltrs/annum (if their food and cigarettes are anything to go by about 2 ltrs comes as a huge surprise)
Pakistan 800 ml per annum (certain they must have an organized chain of kulfi Faluda)
India 300 ml per annum (the rest of the post…)
Though our population and poverty skew these numbers significantly, there is no denying that within the existing economic & demographic realities there is room to put pedal to the metal on consumption. How else would we explain Pakistan consumption more than double & China’s whopping 6 times of ours?
Increase in numbers can be achieved if pure play ice-cream brands with national presence work hard towards building awareness and demand in the market. Except pure play are ones with dwindling market shares
When looked at closely, about half the organized market is dominated by dairy giants like Amul (ice cream biz contributes only 5% to its turn over) & Mother dairy, adding another 22% for the regional players. Between Vadilal, Kwality walls, Cream bell and a handful of premium brands there’s about 40% of the cone.
Industry Snapshot
Market Size : 800 Crores
Ice Cream market is growing at 10 to 12%
Ice creams traditionally are a low volume business
Players
Amul: Market Leader with share of 36%
HLL: Kwality Walls - 2nd biggest player
Mother Diary
Arun: Chennai Based Hatsun Agro Product
Metro Daily: Kolkata based
Aavin: Tamil Nadu based
Recent Happenings
1. HLL's Moo (Nutritional Ice Cream) - targeted at Kids
2. As Mother Dairy has competency cold chain distribution as they have Safal brand ( frozen peas, corn, juices and mixed vegetables) under their portfolio, they have expanded from Delhi to Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Punjab, Rajasthan, UP & Uttaranchal. Due to this and other brand extensions in the pipeline, Mother Diary expects their turnover by 20% this year over their present size of Rs. 2800 Rs. Cr.
3. Aavin, the cooperative sector milk and dairy products marketer in Tamil Nadu, has launched a low sugar variant of ice creams in the market. According to an official press release, the ice cream `without added sugar' is ideal for diabetics and safe for children and mothers-to-be. This variant has just 80 calories and has 16 mg of sweetener against 8,000 mg of sugar in the traditional ice creams. The ice cream conforms to the US and domestic food regulations,
the release said
4. GCMMF launched its pro-biotic ice creams that have live beneficial culture that confer beneficial health effects such as improving immunity and digestion and strengthening bones. It also introduced a sugar-free ice cream range and is planning a Web site on ice creams. There two ranges are - Amul Prolife and Amul Sugarfree. According to Mr. R.S. Sodhi, GM Marketing, Amul, Amul hopes to build the pro-biotic range into a Rs 100- crore brand within the next two-
three years. While Amul had earlier tested this market segment through the launch of an isabgol-enriched ice cream, this is company's first full-fledged attempt at capturing a good share of the pro-biotic enriched foods market in India. Both the brands are available in 125 ml (Rs 15), 500 ml and 1.25 litre (Rs 120) packs in five flavours, vanilla with chocolate sauce, strawberry, chocolate, shahi anjir and fresh litchi. On the retail front, it intends to hike its Amul parlours from 600 to 10,000 by 2010
5. Arun Ice Creams, the ice cream brand from Hatsun Agro Product Ltd, is launching a new range of ice cream outlets, Arun Ice Creams Unlimited. Hatsun Agro, which is the largest private dairy in India, plans to make available its range of dairy products at the conventional Arun ice cream outlets operated through franchisees. This network will also be expanded. The new range of outlets will sell ice cream by the scoop, `aggressively priced' at Rs 20 a scoop of 100 gm, Mr Chandramogan said. A feature of these parlours will be the wide selection of flavours, over 25 flavours with five new substituted for the existing ones
each month to ensure more variety. The company is investing over Rs 15 lakh in each of these outlets.
Few Brands/ Target Consumers
1. YOuth Centric - Chillz
2. Kids - Moo
3. Teenagers - Cornetto
4. Health COnscious - Amul Sugarfree & ProLife
This summer mother diary targeted children with the baseline — `Jagaye Andar ka Bandar' while it is luring adults with the message `Give In'.
Interesting piece of information: Hawking is not allowed in Mumbai which makes 1/3rd of business for HLL. Rest is contributed by retail outlets
Future of Ice Cream Market in India
Ice Cream market will expand with increase in number of malls - HLL has been increasing their ice cream outlets - Swirl. Few years consumers use to go out for walk after dinner and use to buy ice creams from hawkers. But now consumer who often visit malls for entertainment prefer to buy ice creams during different times of the day as it is visible upfront and feel like spending Rs. 50 for that tasty chocolate swirl with cake and nuts. As marketers are understanding the different needs of consumers, be it health conscious people, kids, youngsters, young etc, and coming up with products specific for them... with portfolio of flavors, consumer today has plethora of options at hand to choose from and therefore high probability of buying one more scoop of ice cream. Also with increasing wallet size and innovative modern retail formats, it has definately gi