Kolkata

Kamaths Ourtimes Ice Creams Pvt Ltd, which owns the Naturals ice cream brand, looks to expand its presence in southern markets apart from consolidating its presence in the existing west and north India.

According to Girish Pai, Director, Kamaths Ourtimes Ice Creams, the company currently has a good presence in west and northern parts of the country. It will look to further strengthen its presence in the region by setting up more outlets.

Naturals Ice Cream, currently present across 11 states, is looking to expand its footprint in southern region post-Diwali this year. It has 18 company-owned and 119 franchise stores at present and plans to take the total store count to over 160 by the end of this year.

“We are concentrating on the west and northern markets and strengthening our footprint. Post-Diwali we will look at the southern markets,” Pai told BusinessLine.

Bullish on growth

The Covid-19 induced lockdown and slowdown in demand, particularly during the peak summer months of 2020 and 2021, had impacted the company’s sales.

The revenue dropped to as low as 50 per cent of the pre-Covid period. However, things started recovering and the drop in sale was little less (to the tune of 30-40 per cent) during the second wave. The company is now already at pre-Covid levels and expects to grow by around 30-50 per cent this year over 2019. The company is likely to close the current year with a turnover of around ₹ 160-170 crore.

The company, tied up with online aggregators and adopted cloud kitchen model, is expecting a robust digital growth . Online sales currently accounts for nearly 30-40 per cent of a store’s total revenue.

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