Baskin Robbins, an ice-cream brand operating in the premium space, has plans to add around 100 parlours in the current fiscal expanding its network further, said a top company official.

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The company is looking for a double-digit growth in sales, helped by multiple growth drivers, including expansion of ice cream parlours and new offerings, said Mohit Khattar, CEO of Graviss Foods — the Indian franchise partner of Baskin Robbins.

"Last year, we have crossed 850 ice cream parlours and this year (FY24) the plan is to add another 100 parlours to our network," said Khattar.

Most of the expansion would be through its franchise partner, though the company would also open some of them.

"The idea is to keep penetrating, keep going down and extending the brand into new cities," he said When asked about the growth, he said: "We expect the market to grow about 15 to 16 percent and we are expecting a growth higher than that." Khattar declined to share the financial details, however, he said: "In the last couple of years, we were outperforming the market and this year, we expect to grow higher than the market." Baskin Robbins is the largest player in the premium space in the ice cream market, Khattar said.

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As the mercury is rising in April, Khattar expects sales to be on track.

"We were expecting March to be super hot but it did not happen. But from last week in April, heat has started building up again and as of now everything is on track," he said, adding, "there was a bit of worry at the end of March but its all opening up now." The US-based ice cream chain, which has been operating in India since 1993 through a master franchise agreement with Graviss Group, runs over 850 ice cream parlours across 230 cities.

According to Khattar, Baskin -Robbins is the second largest QSR (quick service restaurant) chain operator after Jubilant Foods, which has the franchise of Domino's Pizza in the country.

Besides ice cream parlour channels, Baskin Robbins is also present in modern trade formats as a supermarket and leading e-commerce platform. It is also present in the B2B channels as food service space and HoReCa (Hotels, Restaurants, Catering) space, he added.

The company has set up a unit at Pune, which caters to its requirement in India and some neighbouring countries such as Sri Lanka, Nepal and Maurititus.

According to Khattar, the premium ice cream market is growing, though it has small share in the overall ice market of the country, which is estimated to vary from Rs 14,000 crore to Rs 20,000. The premium ice cream market is around 10 per cent of the total branded market.

The Indian ice cream market is largely dominated by unorganised or small city-based brands mostly operating through push carts.

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