Ice-cream Brand Dumont Plans for 100 Outlets
Premium ice-cream brand, Dumontis planning to set up 100 outlets across South India in the next one year. Presently the brand has been launched in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Vijayawada with 10 stores. Another five to six stores will be added in the coming month. The company, has been in existence for 20 years and has been supplying frozen desserts to caterers in southern states under different brands. The company sources fresh milk from dairy farms in villages and uses handpicked fruits from India and abroad and makes special sauces in flavours which no other competitor in the country offers.
The company is looking to set-up at least 200 stores in the next three years in Maharashtra and all southern states. The planned stores will be a mix of own and franchise outlets. The company has also received 40 enquiries for franchise outlets. Dumont has a manufacturing plant near Vijayawada with a capacity of 1,900 liters ice cream per hour. They are likely to set up another plant in Hyderabad in a year or two with an investment of Rs 15 crore. It will have a capacity of 2,500 to 3,000 liters of ice cream per hour. The company also has a network of 10 cold storages to handle large volumes.
ITC Planning Strategic Acquisition in FMCG business
ITC Ltd is engaging with and investing in start-ups and looking at strategic opportunities for acquisitions to accelerate growth in the FMCG business. In act around 25 percent of ITC’s segment revenue is from newer FMCG businesses and to accelerate growth in the FMCG businesses, they intend to expand their portfolio in this sector by foraying into newer categories and sub-segments. Over 50 products were launched last year to strengthen existing categories and enter newer segments.
ITC intends to lay emphasis on its health and wellness products in the FMCG space in a bid to scale up its business. The company was expanding its footprint in value-added products while marketing “attribute-specific” products like high curcumin turmeric, low-sugar potato, and organic pulp. It is also promoting wax-free apples. The company aims to emerge as a leader in each segment with the intention to drive investments. The plan is to invest in areas where they are leaders, and in areas where they acquire leadership position in a period of time.
DrBubbles Tea Brand to Expand its Business Nationally
Dr. Bubbles, India’s bubble tea brand is planning to expand its business nationally. Bubble tea is also known as pearl milk tea, Boba juice or Boba tea. This tea has begun to gain popularity across the world following a demand for non-alcoholic and non-carbonated drinks. The trend is beginning to catch on in India too, and homegrown Dr. Bubbles is at its forefront.Dr. Bubbles was established in 2015 after its Founder; Adnan Sarkar discovered the taste of bubble tea on one of his trips to South East Asia and so introduced it in Mumbai. The brand operates 16 stores across India and is aiming to triple its franchise network over the next few years and become the best provider of bubble tea in India.
The tea originated in Taiwan and is a flavoured beverage with tea as its basic ingredient. It is glazed with Boba, which are soft, chewy, and gummy tapioca pearls extracted from cassava root. Other ingredients include jelly and fruit balls, which enhance the texture of the tea. Bubble tea can be served both hot or cold and a fat straw is used to draw in the pearls so they can easily be consumed. To popularise bubble tea, Sarkar has customised bubble tea to suit Indian taste preference and has limited it to providing tapioca Boba. The makeover included introducing fruit jelly and fruit-flavored poppers to the milk and fruit teas. Dr. Bubbles serves a wide variety of cold and hot beverages, skinny drinks, blended options, and create-your-own brews. The brand also offers bubble waffles, non-dairy shakes, and many other healthy foods, and is 100 percent vegetarian.
CMFRI to Develop Online Platform for Fish Marketing
The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) has launched a research project for developing an online platform. This initiative will be beneficial to the fish producers, consumers, traders and processors in India. The project will develop a fish market information system, fish price information and facilitate an e-auctioning system fish trade platform for commercially important fish species. As many as 1,500 fish markets, including landing centers, wholesale markets, retail markets, and aquaculture production markets across the country will be selected for implementing the program. The project on fish market and price information system is funded by the National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB), Hyderabad.
In the first phase, information on 500 fish markets from seven coastal states will be collected. The CMFRI will collect information of these markets and report the weekly fish prices being sold out there through electronic tabs and will develop an online database. Entire dimensions of the fish markets such as geographical location, size, timing, access to transport, arrivals and disposals, species traded, infrastructure facility and average realised minimum and maximum price of around 150 fishes will be available on the websites of NFDB and CMFRI from October 2019 onwards. A total of 50 markets will be covered in Kerala in the initial stage.
Grofers to Deploy 500 E-vans by December
Online grocery retailer, Grofers plans to deploy about 500 electric vans to its last-mile delivery fleet. The SoftBank-backed company had started a pilot with about 50 e-vans last year in Delhi-NCR and has now expanded the initiative to Jaipur also. Presently they have added another 50 e-vans in Delhi-NCR and 50 in Jaipur. They expect the fleet to grow to 500 e-vans by December-end and will operate is all 13 cities where Grofers have their operations. The e-vans will help cut delivery costs by up to 50 percent and carbon footprint by more than 40 percent. The company is also working closely with various manufacturers to help them co-design concepts for electric vehicles that are best suited for e-commerce deliveries. Currently, these vans are three-wheelers that deliver about 30 orders in one run. They are working with various partners on four-wheelers as that that can deliver more orders. The government has been promoting electric vehicles (EVs) in India and plans high penetration of such vehicles by 2030.
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