Hatsun Agro to launch new brand for ice-creams

Dairy and dairy products manufacturer Hatsun Agro Product Ltd will roll out a new brand, Ibaco, to sell ice-cream in scoops through exclusive premium outlets. “We expect to have 70 outlets for Ibaco in Tamil Nadu by March 31, 2012. We are entering into a segment where there is no competition, in the premium segment,” said Prasanna Venkatesh, head – marketing, Hatsun Agro Product Ltd.

He said the company would convert the existing 45-50 Arun Unlimited, its ice-cream retail chain, into Ibaco, apart from opening exclusive outlets under the brand. It is also looking at increasing the brand outlets to 250 by March 2013. However, the financial details of the new plans are not known.

The company, which started with the launch of ice-creams under Arun brand, in 1970, has operations in milk brand Arokya, Hatsun cooking butter, cow ghee, butter milk, curd and paneer apart from badam milk, coffee, ragi brands and dairy ingredients.

It posted an increase of 66 per cent in net profit to Rs 10.66 crore for the quarter ended December 2011, as against Rs 6.42 crore in the same period previous financial year.