Indigenous ice cream brand Rollick, owned by Prestige Ice Creams Pvt Ltd, expects a 30-35 percent growth in sales in 2022 over the pre-Covid year of 2019, backed by a “strong summer” and steady rise in demand. The company has associated with the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) as an official partner for the upcoming IPL series.
Gaurav Khemani, Managing Director of Prestige Ice Creams, said that the last two years have been tough for the ice-cream industry with demand slowing down. However, sales are expected to witness a surge during the current year.
Khemani added that in 2020, they were 50 per cent of the 2019 sales; but in 2021, they grew by nearly 60 per cent over the 2020 numbers. “This was primarily due to the fact that the peak summer months in both 2020 and 2021 were hit by the COVID wave.”Now during the current year, we are expecting 35 percent growth over the 2019 levels, “
The company’s goal is to reach close to 150 crore in sales by the end of 2022.”
Rollick, which is primarily present in eastern states such as Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the north-eastern states, and Bhutan, is looking to expand its presence in these markets.
The brand has established its presence in 100 new towns and villages in West Bengal over the last year and is further looking to strengthen its foothold in the eastern region.
Retail sales and the wedding and catering segments account for nearly 90 percent of the company’s total sales, with the remaining coming from the institutional segment. The company has also been witnessing steady traction in the demand for the sale of ice-creams on the online channel.
Subsequent to its association with KKR, Rollick has launched an ice-candy dedicated to Team KKR and T20 cricket. It is purple in colour, in line with the team’s jersey called Chatpata Powerplay, which will be a mix of sweetness and tanginess (grape and tamarind). The product will be available by April 30th across all retail outlets and Rollick parlours.
The brand also plans to integrate the KKR brand and its players’ images across different packaging of its high-selling SKUs, from laminates to cones to cups.
Rollick looks forward to strengthening its market position among ice-cream consumers in eastern India as a part of this association. The T20 cricket season falls in summer when ice-cream consumption is very high and, with the right to leverage KKR’s strong fan-base in the market, the brand will launch the campaign # RollickingKKR, “he said.