Ice cream, which once formed an important part of post-dinner family treat, has since shed its `only dessert’ title and is gradually squeezing into the overcrowded snacking space. Consumers are increasingly choosing sticks and cones – which are consumed at various occasions throughout the day – over tubs and bricks that were an end-of-the-day indulgence a decade ago. As a result of greater individualistic choices being made by consumers, the contribution of the so-called family packs (bricks, tubs) to the ice cream category has reduced from 50% in 2010 to 40% today, according to R S Sodhi, MD, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), the maker of Amul and a leading player in ice creams. On the other hand, the impulse segment (cones, sticks) has grown from 37% to 45% with ice cream now being categorized as an `any-time’ snack. The change in consumption habits has resulted in the doubling of the size of the category which stands at around `3,000 crore today. Sumit Mathur, general manager, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), said, “On an average, consumption of ice cream in India is 140 ml per annum. It was half of this a decade ago. Post dinner, historically, was the largest consumption and that’s how the dessert packs contributed a major part of the category. That has signifi cantly changed. Now, almost 50% of the business is impulse, typically had out-of-home.“ To leverage the growing trend of snacking, HUL – which has a presence in over 40 towns in India – has launched Cornetto Mini at `20. “There are also more times of the day when people consume
ice cream, whether it is noon time, just before lunch when you want to quickly munch on something and lunch is still an hour away. That’s the reason why we launched a Cornetto Mini as a snacking alternative,“ said Mathur. Several brands of ice cream sticks are available across price points with
the `10 and `20 being the popular ones thriving on consumers’ snacking habit. Marketing of lower price points comes from the consumer insight that there is a growing preference for small bites and in-between meal occasions. “The launch of Cornetto Mini will blow open the belly of the market to the snacking occasion,“ said Mathur. Cornetto is the largest selling product in HUL’s ice cream portfolio. Sodhi of GCMMF said in-home consumption of sticks and cones is also taking place, thus spurring snacking occasions at home as well. Subhashis Basu, business head (dairy products), Mother Dairy, which is planning to launch a popsicle ‘nimbu shikanji’ (fresh lime sweet) priced at `10, said the company has been focusing on driving its impulse range by increasing its variety as on-the-go consumption is on the rise. “For ice cream, being largely a seasonally consumed product, bringing in more variety would increase the frequency of consumption through snacking,“ said Basu. The shift in consumption habits has prompted the likes of HUL to increase accessibility of ice cream products through unique vending options, especially in the north and east where ice cream
is consumed primarily from street vendors. “Accessibility is the most important factor in growing ice cream consumption. If you see ice cream, you want to eat it. We are trying to increase our accessibility. My mandate is to double my footprint in a few years by increasing the sheer availability of ice cream,“ said Mathur. Around 70% of the business in the category comes from north India, where vending forms a large chunk of the category sales. In the west and south, retail plays a bigger role in ice cream sales. (Source: The Times of India, Mumbai, April 07, 2015)