Naturals is looking to double capacity and go global

Siddhant Kamath, director of the company sat down with DH's Lavpreet Kaur, to discuss the success of their artisanal ice cream brand

His is a rags-to-riches story but more remarkable is the manner in which he created a niche brand and sustained it over three and a half decades. Today, Naturals Ice Cream has over 160 outlets across 15 states with a Rs 300 crore turnover. Raghunandan Srinivas Kamath, the founder of the brand and his son Siddhant Kamath, also director of the company sat down with DH's Lavpreet Kaur, to discuss the success of their artisanal ice cream brand and their future plans for it.

How did you find your niche?

Raghunandan Kamath (RK): My father was a mango vendor back in our village, from whom I acquired knowledge on fruits, checking for ripeness, sorting and preserving. At the age of 15, I migrated to Mumbai to join my brother and started working in his South Indian eatery, where they sold homemade ice cream. Soon I wanted to diversify the flavours beyond chocolate and vanilla, but could do little about it as my brother did not agree with the idea. It was only in 1983 that I could strike out on my own. (Naturals was born in 1984 in a 200 sq ft space with six tables in Juhu’s ‘Koliwada’, where simply made fruit ice creams were sold as secondary to pav bhaaji).

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Why did you choose to stick with your niche and not diversify?

Siddhant Kamath (SK): We’re not merely making ice creams. We are into processing - processing the fruits ourselves - so we’ve into pulp production. We’re also into the dairy industry. We’ve streamlined our supply chain which has taken into logistics. So effectively, we’re into four other businesses, right from sourcing to logistics. So slowly what we did was we created our own religion. Starting off with one niche product and then creating a value chain and extending each level of the chain, we’ve created separate businesses.

Do you offer regional variation in your spread?

RK: We do have specific flavours curated for particular regions as per the liking and demand of customers there. We have seen people like gajar halwa in the North,while in Kerala we have seen payasam flavour working very well because people can relate to it. Similarly, (we have) malai korma flavour for Ramzan and modak flavour for Ganesh Chaturthi. So we have to adapt to the local sentiments and innovate flavours, which resonate to that local taste. Of course sitafal and tender coconut are (sold) across all states but we see the demand growing for certain seasonal flavours.

How do you balance seasonal changes in demand?

RK: If you see our store distribution, we’re more heavily present in the western region of the country where winters don’t play an important role and demand remains consistent, except during the monsoons. In the North there is a 25-30% dip during winters. However, during summers the demand rises 30-40% and we are able to average it out for the year.

What were the challenges you faced growing Naturals? How do you compare to the ecosystem for MSMEs today?

RK: Back in the day, I faced many problems - right from finding employees to the dearth of equipment for production. Today, technology has eased up things for MSMEs.

SK: Earlier procuring loans was very difficult. Now there are multiple banks, schemes and options available. The ease of doing business has improved. Consumers have also evolved. This is the right time for MSMEs.

What are your expansion plans?

SK: Now that we have created a value chain, you will see us expanding our portfolio to other products also within the dairy industry. Within naturals, there is an aspiration to go global by 2025-2026. We are working on doubling up our capacity and we have just recently purchased a new plot in Mumbai and by 2024 it will be ready.