Havmor goes slow on overseas expansion plans

Ahmedabad-based Havmor Ice Cream, owners of chain of ice-cream parlours and restaurants across the state, has decided to go slow on its overseas expansion plans.

The company was considering to enter markets like the US and Dubai with its ice-cream brand last year, but has now decided to weigh their options before taking any concrete call. Pradeep Chona, managing director, Havmor Ice Cream said, "We have a lot of offers from entrepreneurs in the US and Dubai who want to partner with us to take our brand global. But, we are currently more focussed on our expansion plans in the country, and are weighing our options to enter the overseas markets."

 

One of the biggest ice-cream manufacturers of western India had earlier explored Singapore for overseas expansion, but eventually did not take it up. Chona said that there was no possibility of an overseas expansion within this fiscal.

Meanwhile, the Ahmedabad-based company is working to double its presence in India in next one year. At present, it operates 60 outlets across the various cities of Gujarat, through a mix of company owned and franchised outlets. The Havmor brand also sells in the neighbouring states of Rajasthan and Maharashtra. Havmor now wants to enter more new states, as well as expand its footprint in a few more cities of Gujarat like Surat, Rajkot, Jamnagar.

The company which has come up with novel ice creams, including the non-alcoholic whisky-flavoured ice cream for premium clientele for parties or weddings, is also experimenting on diet ice creams.

Havmor has been witnessing a growth of 25-30 per cent per year, and with the commencement of its Naroda plant recently, the company now has a capacity of 1 lakh litres of ice cream per day.

The ice cream that began its branded life in 1944 in Karachi, during undivided India by Satish Chona had to start from scratch again in the form of a hand-cart business on a railway station in Ahmedabad, post-partition.

Since then, the ice cream business has taken innovative forms and given newer heights to the company, which aims to a turnover of Rs 175 crore this year by manufacturing 1.5 crore litres of ice cream this year.

Besides, the company also plans to take the number of 'Have Fun' outlets, Havmor's restaurant brand, to 100 within 2011.