Homemade Baker’s (India) Ltd. in Sonepat is one of the largest ice cream cone manufacturers in the country producing 3 million cones every day. The company specializes in producing custom developed flavored and colored ice cream cones, and aluminum foil sleeves for packing of ice cream cones. The company also recently ventured into the manufacturing of IML containers for the ice cream industry. In fact, this summer is the first season for the company starting the commercial production of its IML containers. It produces a complete range of containers for the ice cream industry starting from 100 ml to 1 liter while further introducing a few more containers of different shapes in bigger size and volume. The IML business of the company, which is currently producing 1 lakh containers every day, is expected to increase the total turnover of the company by 25%. At present, the company has five plants in India – four in Sonepat and one in Solan (Himachal Pradesh).
The cone wrappers produced by Homemade Baker’s are dual to multilayered sleeves printed on 10-color Nilpeter printing presses. All sleeves are printed with food grade inks and finished with food grade over coat.
In 1999, when Unilever wanted to bring its Cornetto brand to India, it approached Homemade Baker’s to produce cones for the Cornetto ice cream. Since Homemade Baker’s was already producing cassata cakes for Unilever at that time, Unilever was well aware of Homemade Baker’s quality standards and expertise in producing bakery products and did not have to give a second thought about entrusting them with the new responsibility. “That is when we bought our first line from Germany for making cones. We were the first one in the country to make waffle/sugar cones. In the beginning, the production volume was very less. However, very soon volume started growing and we set up our own sleeve printing lines as well. Today we have 11 cone lines and 5 sleeve printing lines,” says Rajiv Manchanda, director of Homemade Baker’s. Homemade Baker’s is now the home to many reputed brands including Vadilal, Cornetto (Wall’s), Cream Bell, Amul, Mother Dairy, Dinshaw’s etc.
Speaking about growing demand for ice cream cones, Manchanda says, “One reason why ice cream cone is getting more and more popular is the rising focus on healthy variants of ice creams. Consuming cone with an ice cream makes the whole process very wholesome. You get all the richness of milk, fat and along with it you get carbohydrates from flour used during the making of the cones. The demand is also getting a robust impetus from the rising millennial who find ice creams with cones easy to handle with their mobile phones on one hand and the cone on the other. While the Indian ice cream industry is one of the fastest growing segments of the dairy or food processing industry growing at about 15%, ice cream cone, which forms a significant chunk of the overall ice cream industry, is witnessing a growth of about 35-40%.”
Cone requires special packaging to keep it safe from moisture so that when the consumer is consuming the cones, it is always fresh and crispy. “For this, you need sleeves that offer excellent moisture barrier properties in refrigerated and semi-refrigerated conditions. That is what we specialize in. We specialize in making cold foil wrappers which are meant to keep cones crisp and fresh till it reach the end consumer,” says Manchanda. “We have a specially formulated laminate which has an excellent barrier property and we use pure aluminum foil in our sleeves. As a result, the products we supply are the best in quality. The wrappers we produce are dual to multilayered sleeves printed on 10-color Nilpeter printing presses. All sleeves are printed with food grade inks and finished with food grade over coat.”
Homemade Baker’s has a capacity to produce 5.5 million sleeves every day. In order to have a self-sustaining system, it produces its own laminates for sleeves. “The ice cream market is very price sensitive like any other industries in India. To keep the ice cream manufacturers competitive and profitable, it is necessary for us to produce high quality products at a low cost. And that is where the backward integration helps us,” explains Manchanda.
Speaking about the challenges, Manchanda says, “Since ice cream is a very seasonal business, it requires a huge capital investment for a very short time. We have all the demands in the summer season while there is almost no demand in the winters – this sometimes makes our capital investment very unjustified because the equipment that we use are highly automated and very expensive. This is the reality. If you want to be in this business, you have to be prepared for that. However, we have found out some ways to utilize our capacity during winters but it is difficult. If you want to sell your entire capacity during winters, it is practically not possible.”
The ice cream industry in India
According to a report, the ice cream industry in India generated revenue of more than US$ 1.5 billion in 2016 and is projected to generate revenue of approximately US$ 3.4 billion by 2021. Globally, ice cream is the most popular dessert. Since the industry is marginally capital intensive, it is very competitive. In 2014, China took over the United States as the largest ice cream market globally. In 2015, United states, New Zealand, Australia, Denmark and Belgium dominated the global ice cream market in terms of consumption.
The Indian ice cream industry is one of the fastest growing segments of the dairy or food processing industry. India has a low per capita ice cream consumption of ice cream at 400 ml as compared with per capita consumption of ice cream of 22,000 ml in the United States and 3,000 ml in China. With the improving cold chain infrastructure in the country coupled with increasing disposable income and the changing lifestyle, the sector has great potential for growth. In India ice cream industry is mostly regional and there is a multitude of brands focusing on only one or two districts or in some case only one state. There are very few national brands and the major reason behind slow growth of the smaller players is the high perishability of ice cream products.