Amul's 1k new ice cream parlours to scorch market

Scoops of ice cream are lapped up in Gujarat all round the year; and as the summers hot up the indulgence knows no bounds. Well, Amul is set to heat up this market even more. Buoyed by the success of 300 ice cream parlours that provide bespoke ice cream preparations, it plans to add a whopping 1,000 parlours more in the country by the end of this year.

Already the market leader with 38 per cent share in branded ice cream market, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) that markets brand Amul is set to expand its reach. A jingle in the future could well say “Amul ice cream khata hai India” .

“This summer, we are planning to promote our ice cream brands through Amul scooping parlours and Amul preferred outlets (APOs) across the country. We are adding 2,500 APOs and 1,000 scooping parlours,” GCMMF’s chief general manager RS Sodhi told TOI on Tuesday. Amul at present has a network of 4,500 APOs in the country while it has plans to create 10,000 APOs by 2012. “Simultaneously, we will be increasing our reach by adding 15,000 more retail outlets to our present network of 70,000 outlets by the end of this year.”

The branded ice cream market in the country is estimated to be 150 million litres per annum valued at Rs 1,200 crore.

Keeping in mind consumer lifestyle, the dairy major had launched its first scooping parlour in Mumbai a year and a half ago. “Amul is the only brand, which is present in any city or town that has over 50,000 population,” says Sodhi , adding that while many of Amul’s competitors have limited regional presence, the other national brands competing against Amul in the branded ice cream too have their presence limited to metros and top cities.

Amul is also to increase capacity of its existing plants to meet growing demands this summer. While it had manufacturing facilities at Gandhinagar , Palanpur, Anand and Vadodara in Gujarat, apart from Nagpur and metros like Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi, this year it added another manufacturing facility at Puducherry.

This summer, the dairy major has already launched five flavours — mast melon, pineapple masti, nuts bout U, fruit fusion and royal butter scotch in party packs and cups even as it is set to add new flavours through limited edition offer.