Natural Ice Cream, doing business asNaturals, is an Indian ice cream brand owned by Mumbai-based Kamaths Ourtimes Ice Creams Pvt. Ltd.[3] It was founded by Raghunandan Srinivas Kamath who opened its first store at Juhu in Mumbai in 1984.[4][5][6][7]
The chain recorded a retail turnover of ₹300 crore in the financial year 2020, up from ₹115 crores in 2015.[4][8] The ice creams are manufactured by Kamaths Ourtimes Ice Creams Pvt. Ltd. and retailed by its subsidiary company Kamaths Natural Retail Pvt. Ltd.[9]
The 2017 rebranding effort, which established the ‘Taste the Original’ tagline, aimed to set it apart from similar named brands popping up.[10]
Market
As of April 2022, the chain has 18 directly owned stores and 119 franchised stores across 11 states.[11] The stores are present in the states of Maharashtra, West Bengal,[12]Karnataka, Goa,[13] Telangana, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh,[14] Chhattisgarh, Gujarat,[15] Rajasthan[13] and Delhi NCR.[16][17][18][19]
Production and trade
The brand's only production facility is situated in Charkop, a suburb of Kandivali in Mumbai, India.[19] The company supplies to its stores every day.[12] The company spends less than 1% of its sales revenues on advertising, relying mainly on word of mouth to attain revenues.[13]
After two years, the brand launched an experiential concept store in Juhu named Naturals Now, which serves freshly churned ice cream straight out of the churner.[20]
Products
Starting with around 10 flavours, Natural Ice Cream has 125 flavour options, of which 20 are offered throughout the year.[21] The set of flavours change according to seasons. Some of the seasonal flavors include litchi, fig, jackfruit, Muskmelon and watermelon.[22] A custard apple flavor is also purveyed by the brand.[22][23][24]
Awards and recognition
In 2006, the brand received Corporation Bank's National SME's Excellence Award in the Food and Agro Industry.[25] In February 2009, a Natural Ice Cream store located in the JuhuVille Parle Development scheme placed in the Limca Book of Records for the largest ice cream slab, which weighed 3,000 kilograms.[26] The brand was awarded as Best in Customer Service - Regional Retailer Of the Year in 2013.[27][28] In 2014 the brand received the gold medal for most innovative ice cream flavour (cucumber) in the Great Indian Ice Cream Contest.[29] In 2016, Natural Ice Cream was awarded for home grown concept in food service by Coca-Cola Golden Spoon Awards[30] and also received IMAGES Most Admired Food Service Chain of the Year in the Ice-cream & Dessert Parlours category.[31] It was named as India’s Top 10 brand for customer experience in a KPMG survey.[4]
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₹374 crore (US$44 million) (FY24)
