Every child's dream is to ‘own' an ice parlour!! Imagine this dream coming true; and it did for Mr.Raghvendra K Thane, Managing Partner, M/s Kshitij Enterprises. He takes pride in owning, making and selling a variety of mouth watering delicious natural and fresh Ice cream to all the rest of us !

What inspired you to do this business? 

My father was working as a government employee and he ventured into the business of silk farm in 1985. I was curious to know about the business and its intricacies.  His innovative approach towards business inspired me to entrepreneurship.  But I joined a company as a marketing executive. Simultaneously I did an MBA. 

The concept of natural food products and its potential enticed me all along. The possibilities of introducing something that's healthy and natural away from hazards which could be mass produced like the ‘lijjat papad' brand appealed to me.

Start up : Business venture :

In 2002 my school mate and I, opened a partnership firm in Bombay as M/s Kshitij Enterprises and operated from the residence representing a Taiwan base company to sell their Holographic security products in India.

But it was time to fulfill my dream and start our own business. We chose Natural Ice-cream, Inspired by the Bombay based Natural ice cream. To my knowledge the concept of Natural Ice cream was virtually unknown to South Indians and the most logical thing to do was start the unit in Bangalore since I was based here.

On 21st Jan 2006 we were able to open a factory in Yeshwantpur, Bangalore with the brand name  M/s Kshitij Ice creams. 

What problems did you face in the starting of this venture? 

We did face some technical problems but my past experience was so strong that the problems didn't exist more than a month.

1   The production process is unlike the regular Ice Cream process.

2   Formation of Ice Crystals   

3   Rock Hard Ice Cream when frozen (Difficult to scoop)

4   Weighing 2.2 to 2.5 Kg (inefficient weight) of 4 lts carton (perfect weight should be between 2.6 to 3.2 kg)

Market Condition

The mass marketing approach did not give us the expected results.

The competition in the conventional market is so high that the buyer (Middle man/channel partner) was unable to accept the price. So we identified the basic customer segment with the willingness to pay the price. 

Product performance

A lot of R&D in the dairy technology center helped in achieving the quality standards. With consistent efforts; today the taste is perfect. The performance of our product is proof of this.

Suppliers constrains

Sourcing was never an issue but the quality and supply of a variety of ingredients needed for the production of  Ice cream was difficult. And we don't use ordinary milk for our production.  Instead this milk is given a high temperature treatment. Initially we sourced it from Tamil Nadu and then from Chittor. Now the local market has developed. 

How did you manage the finance?

I didn't have any Financial support from my family, and so what ever we are today it's purely our hard earned fund. We started with Rs 12 Lakhs investment and  today our company has a turnover of Rs 30 lakhs  at the end of 12 months.

How did you develop the market? 

We advertise through Counter boards, provide gift hampers, sampling and discounted sale. We make direct sales to our corporate clients as it's mainly bulk sales and the channel partners ( our customers) in turn reach out to the end customers.

Luckily we didn't have any competitor for Natural Ice cream. But the conventional ice cream industry is a potential competitor. We took to co-branding and also held road shows in educational institutions around our outlets. We have developed small pockets of ready market to ward of competition; mainly through word of mouth and referrals of our existing customers. The next 2 years will be study period and we have marginalized the risk factor. Our strategic intent is to establish by 2010 Natural Ice cream through out Bangalore. 

What unique feature you have introduced in your business?

The business we own is low cost asset but high performance driven model, Our USP is our Niche products; natural and fresh with an enviable variety that is hard to replicate. There are about 12 SeasonalFresh Fruits based Ice Cream and all year round Dry Fruits based Ice Cream. We have 64 outlets all over Karnataka 

Kishor Jagirdar  is a Strategic Management Consultant. Founderof Infopace Management Pvt. Ltd. 

Issue BG68 Nov06

Related Items:

---

Be first to comment this article

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.