Dairy Den Kiosk invests Rs 11 crore to promote Yums cone

Ahmedabad: Dairy Den Kiosk, the Gandhinagar-based Rs 90-crore ice-cream manufacturer, which shook up the ice-cream market with the introduction of Yums, the Rs 5 cone, has decided to capitalise on the success of the brand and pump in an additional Rs 11 crore to expand it nationally.

“We are in the process of installing 110 Yums ice-cream machines in Gujarat and a further 110 in other states. The exercise will be over by the end of November 2002. The Yums business will be expanded in Pune, Nasik, Nagpur, Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon and Chandigarh. Yums already has 200 outlets nationally, with 85 of them in Mumbai alone. More such outlets are on the anvil,“ says Dairy Den vice-president (operations) Raj Sawant.

Adds Dairy Den CEO Rajiv Goel: “We have four divisions in our company — the machinery unit, the Yums business, the Chills, Thrills and Frills outlets (which are premium, company-owned parlours) — and the food and dairy products unit. We are also test-marketing milk in some cities under the brand name Dairy Den, and the next offering is going to be ice-cream mixes, toppings, fruits and nuts. In fact, we invite the consumer to make his or her own sundaes.“

Giving details of the market, Goel says the ice-cream business in India is worth Rs 1,200 crore and out of this, the per capita consumption is the highest in Gujarat. “We are now planning to expand the market by offering affordable ice-cream without compromising on quality and our Yums endeavour has already proved that such a thing is possible.“

Moreover, the emphasis is going to be on the newly created division of dairy and food products, which is already doing Rs 10 crore. “It is expected to gross Rs 50 crore by next year and become the major revenue earner for the company,“ adds Goel. The combined turnover of the company is Rs 90 crore, which is expected to go beyond Rs 100 crore by the end of the next financial year.