The Hindu Business Line : Mother Dairy catching up with HLL in ice-cream market

Targeting South
Mother Dairy ice creams will soon enter Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai.
Kerala is being avoided due to the dominance of local ice cream players.

Mumbai May 25 Mother Dairy is inching closer to Hindustan Lever Ltd in the Rs 800-crore ice cream market. While Amul reigns in the ice-cream market with a dominant share of almost 35 per cent, HLL's Kwality Walls brand has been hovering around 16-17 per cent volume share as per industry estimates.

Mr Paul Thachil, CEO, Mother Dairy, said, "We are looking at having a 14-15 per cent volume share this year and intend taking our ice creams to the southern markets."

Besides Delhi, Mother Dairy ice creams are currently available in Mumbai and Kolkata.

"The southern markets are dominated by local players in the ice-cream category but we have the advantage of our cold chain and retailer network due to our frozen foods brand of Safal.

"Both the products would require the same kind of temperature band," said Mr Thachil.

Avoiding Kerala

Mother Dairy ice creams will now enter the markets of Bangalore and Hyderabad before rolling it out in Chennai. However, Kerala is being avoided by the dairy major primarily due to the dominance of local ice cream players in the State.

Segmenting its ice creams under a youth centric brand, Chillz, there are other variants based on low fat diets in its portfolio.

However, this summer the co-operative is targeting children with the baseline — `Jagaye Andar ka Bandar' while it is luring adults with the message `Give In'.

Besides, extensions are being planned for each of its flagship brands. Chillz may be extended into the ready-to-eat category, while Dhara, the edible oil brand may enter new segments such as pulses, cereals and spices.

Brand extensions

Its foods brand, Safal, has also graduated from frozen peas, corn, juices and mixed vegetables to ketchups, jams and tomato purees, and will be available as a drink in the market. As for the umbrella brand of Mother Dairy, it may get stretched to new products such as paneer and Indian sweets in the near future.

Meanwhile, after capturing the Delhi market, Mother Dairy has been steadily increasing its franchise in the Mumbai market. It has recently launched its dahi brand in Mumbai, where it will have competition from Amul and Nestle.

"We are targeting a market share between 30 and 35 per cent in Mumbai within a year of the launch. Curd would complete our existing dairy portfolio in the city," said Mr Thachil. The Rs 2,800-crore Mother Dairy expects to grow at 20 per cent this year.

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