The company, which suffered a grim summer season owing to lockdown and limited supply, is looking to tap into revival in consumer demand and an extended summer

Vadilal Industries Limited, which sells ice-cream and frozen food products under Vadilal brand, on Tuesday said that it is eyeing Rs800 crore in sales revenue during FY22 from its ice-cream category. The company, which suffered a grim summer season owing to lockdown and limited supply, is looking to tap into revival in consumer demand and an extended summer, which will aid in its growth this year.

“2020 was a tough year for the ice-cream category. We have already started witnessing early signs of demand revival this year. Our sales revenues from ice-cream segment was about Rs650 crore in 2019-20. We are hoping to cross Rs800 crore for ice-creams this year,” said Aakanksha Gandhi, brand director for Vadilal Ice Cream.

The company has launched 12 new products for the summer season expanding its current range of 200 products. Apart from kulfis, the brand is building categories such as gourmet, badabite, flingo and ice-cream cakes for younger audiences who like to experiment with different flavours.

To create greater recall of the brand, the company has rolled out a new campaign “Waah Vadilal” targeted at young consumer base between 18 and 30 years. Made by advertising agency Lowe Lintas, the campaign will be promoted across print, outdoor hoardings, point-of-sale branding, television, digital media, and radio. Vadilal will also leverage Disney + Hotstar during Indian Premier League (IPL).

“Through this campaign, we wish to create stronger affinity towards the brand Vadilal among young consumers. We have earmarked marketing budgets for this year, which stand at 8% of total sales, up from 6% in 2019,” said Gandhi.

Meanwhile, despite the volatility in raw material prices, that is, Skimmed Milk Powder (SMP), Vadilal said there will be no price revision in ice-creams.

On the exports side, the company said that it has done well clocking revenues of Rs250 crore for the year 2020-21. “The overseas sales have grown by 15% during 2020-21 including ice-creams, frozen and processed foods. This year we expect exports to cross Rs350 crore,” said Gandhi.

The company said that it has strengthened its e-commerce verticals with a dedicated website (Vadilal.com) along with presence on third party platforms such as Zomato, Swiggy, and Big Basket. Currently, it is fulfilling online deliveries through 250 retail points which will be increased to 400 this year to continue service at home consumption.

Before March, one could have confidently said the ice-cream category is expected to witness exponential growth in both individual and institutional (hotels/malls) consumption said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist, Care Ratings Ltd.

“However, owing to multiple restrictions in Maharashtra and other key cities, there could be a hold back. As of today, although there are restrictions, they are not total lockdowns, in which case the growth for these players will be moderate. Consumer demand will definitely slow down but there wont be a crash like last year,” he added.