Fruits, nuts edge out plain vanilla
Major changes have occured in the choice of flavours in the Rs 700 cr branded ice cream market.
By Harit Mehta, TNN |
AHMEDABAD: As the world celebrated Ice Cream Day on the third ‘Sundae’ (complete with nuts, fruits and chocolate sauce) of July, Indian ice cream lovers seem to have given a thumbs down to no-frills products. So, vanilla is on its way out and chocolate is in. Plain strawberry is a passe and fresh fruits are in vogue.
Ice cream makers are rapidly adapting to the fast changing taste buds of consumers to increase their pie in the Rs 700 crore branded ice cream market, which is growing at an impressive 20%. In the past five years, there have been major changes in the trends of flavours. Chocolate and fresh fruits have nudged out traditionally strong plain flavours such as vanilla and strawberry, whose sales came down by one-third.
Sample this: Four years back, plain flavours such as vanilla and strawberry accounted for 60% of the sales of Amul, India’s largest ice cream maker, which has a 34% market share in volume terms. Today, it has come down by a one-third. On the other hand, chocolate flavours accounted for 5% of total sales till ’01-02. Today, they constitute 15% of the total sales. The share of fresh fruits ice cream has doubled to 10% in four years. Vadilal and Havmor also see a similar trend with their products.
“Consumers are willing to experiment with flavours. Today, we have over half a dozen chocolate-based flavours. Five years back, we just had a couple. There is a marked shift towards chocolate-flavoured ice creams in the Indian market,” says RS Sodhi, chief general manager of Amul.
Of the 50 new flavours it introduced in the past five years, a large number is chocolate-based. If earlier it was just chocobar and chocolate ice cream, now you have sundaes, chocochips, double choco and cones to name a few.
At Vadilal, chocolate-based products have taken the number two slot. “From a meagre 3% about five years back to over 10% today, chocolate-based ice-creams continues to grow phenomenally. Five years back, chocolate did not even figure in the company’s top 10 flavours. Today, it is only second to vanilla,” says Devanshu Gandhi, MD, Vadilal Industries. Vanilla has maintained its top slot due to variety of usages. “Besides, it is cheap. But chocolate is growing very fast,” says Pradeep Chona of Havmor Foods.
Sources say a major reason is the marginal rise in ice cream rates in the past few years. “Also, now the price gap between a vanilla and chocolate as well as other flavours has come down. In the past, the difference was huge. Hence, now people are ready to try out other flavours,” says Mr Sodhi.
Ice cream makers are rapidly adapting to the fast changing taste buds of consumers to increase their pie in the Rs 700 crore branded ice cream market, which is growing at an impressive 20%. In the past five years, there have been major changes in the trends of flavours. Chocolate and fresh fruits have nudged out traditionally strong plain flavours such as vanilla and strawberry, whose sales came down by one-third.
Sample this: Four years back, plain flavours such as vanilla and strawberry accounted for 60% of the sales of Amul, India’s largest ice cream maker, which has a 34% market share in volume terms. Today, it has come down by a one-third. On the other hand, chocolate flavours accounted for 5% of total sales till ’01-02. Today, they constitute 15% of the total sales. The share of fresh fruits ice cream has doubled to 10% in four years. Vadilal and Havmor also see a similar trend with their products.
“Consumers are willing to experiment with flavours. Today, we have over half a dozen chocolate-based flavours. Five years back, we just had a couple. There is a marked shift towards chocolate-flavoured ice creams in the Indian market,” says RS Sodhi, chief general manager of Amul.
Of the 50 new flavours it introduced in the past five years, a large number is chocolate-based. If earlier it was just chocobar and chocolate ice cream, now you have sundaes, chocochips, double choco and cones to name a few.
At Vadilal, chocolate-based products have taken the number two slot. “From a meagre 3% about five years back to over 10% today, chocolate-based ice-creams continues to grow phenomenally. Five years back, chocolate did not even figure in the company’s top 10 flavours. Today, it is only second to vanilla,” says Devanshu Gandhi, MD, Vadilal Industries. Vanilla has maintained its top slot due to variety of usages. “Besides, it is cheap. But chocolate is growing very fast,” says Pradeep Chona of Havmor Foods.
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Sources say a major reason is the marginal rise in ice cream rates in the past few years. “Also, now the price gap between a vanilla and chocolate as well as other flavours has come down. In the past, the difference was huge. Hence, now people are ready to try out other flavours,” says Mr Sodhi.
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