Vadilal looks East to boost sales; eyes 25% growth

Ahmedabad-based ice-cream maker Vadilal Industries is looking at East India for market expansion as it eyes 25 percent revenue growth in the current fiscal.

The company, that sells brands like Flingo, Gourmet and Badabite currently, will also be launching more SKUs (stock keeping units) under these brands to enhance their equity.

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"We are focusing on enhancing our presence in East India. We have not yet finalised a plan..it is a big logistics problem sending products from Bareilly to Kolkata..this market (East) is picking up," Vadilal Industries Managing Director Devanshu Gandhi told PTI.

The company currently just gets around 5-7 percent of its revenue from Eastern part of the country, while 50 per cent of its revenues come from Western India and the rest from North India.

Gandhi added that the company, which over the past few years has achieved a growth of 20 per cent, is expecting to grow by 25 percent in the current fiscal.

On the launch of more products, he said: "We are developing brands like Flingo, Badabite, Gourmet..our target is to increase brand image of these brands and bring out more SKUs of these brands."

"We are planning to extend the Power Sip brand by entering into juices category in the same brand," Gandhi said, adding, the company would also be adding new range of products like cakes and pastries under its Artisan brand.

At present, Vadilal invests around 5 percent of its revenues on advertising and brand promotion, he added.

It has total capacity of producing around 175 tonnes of ice-cream per day. It posted total income of Rs 285 crore for the financial year 2011-12.

The company has three production facilities - one each at Pundhra in Gandhinagar, Dharampur in Surat and Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh.