May 6, 2021
Although ice cream is loved all over the world but still, in India, its consumption is comparatively less. Indians do not consume a lot of ice cream. Statistically the average per capita consumption of ice cream in the US is around five litres comparatively, it’s only 350 ml in India.
According to Sanjay Sharma, business head, value-added dairy products, Mother Dairy; there are two main reasons behind the problem. The first one is the availability of ice cream has been a major challenge because of the state of electricity (frequent power cuts) and lack of proper cold chain infrastructure. The second thing is as compared to western countries, Indians do not store ice cream at home due to the lack of storage space in the freezer of their refrigerators. Storage issues lead to depletion in ice cream consumption and making it a single-day affair, usually on a Saturday or Sunday.
During the COVID pandemic, the sales of Mother Dairy’s ‘take-home’ packs have gone up, and increase in the in-house consumption of ice cream.
Another important revelation is that the deep freezers in refrigerators have increased in size and become better in terms of technology over the last several years. Earlier, freezers could store only a few other things, apart from the ice trays or non-veg food. Deep freezers makeup almost half of today’s refrigerators and can store many other items, like frozen food, etc.
Home storage definitely drives the frequency of consumption, while also increasing the consumption of multiple flavours.
Ice cream sales happen primarily in three segments, impulse/on-the-go (like cones and popsicles), at-home (bricks and tubs), and institutional (for HORECA). The pandemic situation affected both the HORECA and on-the-go consumption.
At-home consumption has grown well last year, but mother dairy wants to hold on to that growth.
Sharma says that while on-the-go consumption is picking up pace and HORECA business has been hit again after lockdown in the second wave and at-home consumption has really shined.
The organized ice cream market is valued at around Rs. 5,500 crore to Rs. 6,000 crore. Among the key players are Amul, Kwality Wall’s, Mother Dairy, Havmor, Vadilal, Arun Ice cream, etc. The market is led by Amul, followed by Mother Dairy and Kwality Wall’s (HUL).
Mother Dairy is benchmarking 2019-20 and expects a ‘high double-digit growth’ now. In comparison with pandemic year (2020-21), the company expects to double its growth. It has also expanded its presence in 100 new cities this year.
Mother Dairy also wants people to order ice cream online. Yet, unlike most other food items, ice cream requires a cold delivery chain throughout its distribution journey in order to maintain its texture. The last mile cold delivery infrastructure is still a missing link. A problem that the brand is trying to match up with its hyperlocal distribution network.
During lockdowns, Mother Dairy pooled together all its distribution resources, including milk booths, kirana outlets and delivery partners (Swiggy/Zomato) to deliver ice cream. The brand also sold via its own website. The contacts of local retailers are listed on the website and once the order is placed, the delivery is facilitated by the retailer itself.
The last-mile delivery is a huge challenge due to the lack of cold chains. We are looking for solutions. We can make it (ice cream) last for 10-15 minutes in a zipper pouch, but not more than that. Also, our delivery partners have to invest in cold delivery infrastructure.”
Sharma says that deliveries played an important role in driving business during the pandemic. The product that sold the most was the ‘ice cream cake’. That’s because it is generally stored at (minus) -20 degrees and has to be taken out of the deep freezer around an hour prior to consumption (to get the right taste and texture).