Kolkata-based Pabrai’s ice cream parlour chain, Fresh and Naturalle, is planning to expand its network widely through franchising this year. The company is known for its unique flavoured ice creams such as nalen gur (date palm jaggery), paan (betel leaf) andgandharaj (scented lemon).
Apart from recent launches in Mumbai, Bhubaneshwar and Mysore, the company plans to set up 30 more new stores by the end of this fiscal year.
Major operations of Fresh and Naturalle is handled through franchising.
Pabrai’s is one of the smaller players operating only in the premium segment. A 100-ml ice-cream is priced between Rs 70 and Rs 90 compared with the Rs 15-Rs 20 price bracket for a normal brand. The ice-cream market in India is pegged at 160 million litres annually.
Fresh and Naturelle has 18 outlets spread across Kolkata, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Surat, Jaipur and Siliguri.
Besides, it has tied up with Spencer’s and top hotels and restaurants such as Taj, Park, ITC, Mainland China, Oh! Calcutta, among others.
Although Fresh & Naturelle, a unit of K N & Co, was set up by brothers – Kunal and Nishant, the Pabrai family has had a previous experience in ice-cream manufacturing. Anuvrat Pabrai, their father, had set up one of India’s oldest ice-cream brands Tulika’s. Set up in the early 80s, it was a dominant player in the eastern region. In 2008, operations were closed down following labour problems at its factory in south-west Kolkata.
“The Tulika’s factory still has Italian technology. We plan to refurbish the factory. Initially, we will start with a capacity of 10,000 litres a day. Later, we might scale it to 20,000 litres,” he said.