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Ready-to-use liquid ice cream mix: A sure recipe for finger licking profits
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Saturday, 18 November, 2006, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Ashwini Bajaj
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s generation that grew up on the softy would remember with nostalgia the delectable swirls the machine made while they waited for the cone to come into their hands. Thankfully, the good times are back, not only for the 'then' generation, but for generation next who are lapping up the pleasures of the delectable softy.
The resurgence has been led by the all-American tradition that followed McDonald's into the country. Soon no McDonald's was complete without the ubiquitous softy vending machine, and there is even a unique customer set who line up not for the burgers, but for the 'Soft Serve'.
Retail boom, malls and hyper-markets coming up across the country have only underlined the untapped potential of this time tested product. Apart from Softy, ice creams, milk shakes and smoothies are now qualified as increasingly popular, impulse purchase in ambience shopping.
At Amrit, we anticipated a huge need for a high quality ready-to-use dairy mix that was versatile in nature and would serve the needs of existing ice cream manufacturers as well as new retail formats that are springing up across India today. Our estimation was based on market realities peculiar to India and the product was developed addressing those very issues.
Some major concerns before ice cream manufacturers are:
*Maintaining the cold chain. This is a major challenge in India. Owing to fluctuations in temperature, ice creams melt and re-freeze while being transported, leading to change/variation in taste and texture.
*High cost of transportation With the availability of a high quality liquid ice cream mix (no need to add water, cream, sugar, etc.), ice cream manufacturers can cut down substantially their costs since they can now transport ice cream in liquid form and freeze at desired destinations.
This will allow them to cut down real estate costs since huge cold storage space can be avoided, while gaining substantial savings on inventory costs as well. Also, they can increase the reach of their distribution. All this, while ensuring superior product quality at lower cost!
Moreover, ready-to-use liquid ice cream mix is an extremely versatile product that can be used by:
*Fast food chains for preparing milk shakes and smoothies
*Put into a softy machine for delicious softies in a variety of flavours. Extremely handy for small retailers who, by making a small investment in a softy machine, can offer customers a value-added product with a good profit margin.
*Ice cream manufacturers, big and small. For big manufactures, it allows them to cut costs while ensuring product quality. For small players it gives them access to a quality product (hygiene is a big issue in the unorganised ice cream market) and saves them investments in manufacturing and processing.
At Amrit, our ready-to-use liquid ice cream mix has elicited enthusiastic response in the market especially from big manufacturers. We have also seen a tremendous response from new retail formats that are coming up in cities. Notable among them are fast food joints like Haldiram's, Fast Trax (Delhi), Bembo's (Mumbai), Barnie's Coffee and Taco Maker, among others.
'GAGAN' ice cream mix is manufactured through the UHT process making it completely bacteria free, at our state-of-the-art UHT plant in Ghaziabad. Amrit Banaspati Co Ltd is the country's first company to have set up an ultra modern UHT plant way back in 1989. It is the only plant to boast of using the advanced technology of heating milk to a high degree through direct steam infusion. Owing to a shorter heating time, the milk heated by this process does not lose out on nutrients and taste. The UHT process removes all bacteria from the milk, thereby giving it a long shelf life.
Amrit Food's 'ready-to-use liquid ice cream mix' comes in aseptic pouch packaging (only one of its kind in the country) and has a shelf life of 3 months, making it convenient to be bought and stored conveniently in bulk.
Though currently it is targeted at institutional buyers, we are firming up plans to introduce this versatile ice cream mix in the retail market in the near future.
Amrit Food is a division of the Rs 600-crore Amrit Banaspati Co Ltd (ABCL). This dairy milk & dairy products division of ABCL produces UHT liquid milk and flavoured milk under the 'Gagan' brand and dairy mixes for fast food chains such as McDonald's, Barnie's, Taco Maker etc. The company is today the undisputed market leader in flavoured milk market in north India.ABCL, an innovative, multifaceted, multi-product organisation started out in the year 1940 as a small company at Ghaziabad to manufacture Vanaspati in a 25 tonnes per day capacity plant. Today ABCL is a diversified conglomerate manufacturing and distributing wide range of FMCG products, namely, vanaspati, refined oils, table margarine, bakery shortening, rice & salt, dairy milk & dairy mixes and writing & printing paper along with its recent foray into real estate. ABCL is one of the largest manufacturers/distributors of Vanaspati, refined oils & other edible oil products having successful brands like 'Gagan', 'Ginni', 'Merrigold', etc. The writing & printing paper division, known as 'ABC Paper' manufactures finest quality writing & printing paper from agriculture waste in the various variants of 'ABC Gold' brand. It produces over 40,000 tonnes of paper every year.
The author is Managing Director, Amrit Vanaspati Co Ltd.
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