May 17, 2021
In as much we strive our best to keep the economy afloat since last year, many industries saw a nosedive again. When we speak of the food industry, the only ailing industry related to Dairy is the Ice Cream industry.
Feb-March 2021 was a mirage, only to get up from the trance to see deserted streets and roads. In a jiffy the mirage vanished and facing the reality, ice cream makers witnessing lame sales this summer too as most markets are under covid-induced lockdown and ailing patients everywhere.
R.S. Sodhi, Amul, says sales dipped to 30%-50% this year. The company has cut production by 60%. Well, that’s alarming!!!
With inflation on the typical rise, ice cream manufacturers have not revised their pricing despite increased input costs. Logistics costs to shot up by 20 per cent, while packaging costs are up 40per cent.
“This year we were seeing some improvement in sales from states like Maharashtra, however, we are losing sales in states like Uttar Pradesh currently,” Sodhi added.
Hatsun Agro Product that owns Arun Ice Cream, also saw sales drop to 30 per cent-40 per cent, due to the lockdown imposed in April. R.G. Chandramogan, MD Hatsun agro, said that the normal summer sales were wiped off in the last two years. However, we expect to do 30% sales better than April and May 2020 due to the low base effect. We are not running in production full capacity. We are also absorbing the cost like an increase in packaging cost of 15 per cent.
On the contrary, online selling FMCG startups like Habbit Health and Nutrition that has Delhi NCR as its market, say sales have increased by three-fold. Its CEO Dhruv Bhushan strongly puts in that demand for their nutritious ice cream category has increased from Rs. 6 lakh in March 2021 to Rs. 17 lakh in April 2021. “Customers are going for the ‘nutrition’ quotient and are gifting our products to friends and family during the lockdown. We are seeing the same growth trend in May too.”