Walking in the streets of Matunga in Mumbai, one day I noticed a shop. At around 8 a.m., the staff members in the shop gathered at one place. I could see all this through a glass door. There was some kind of seminar going on. Someone inside was teaching something to the staff members. The name of the shop was 'Naturals'.
Some days back I read a blog post related to Naturals ice cream. The old memories came live. So I have decided to write a blog post about one of the emerging brands that I admire.
Naturals ice cream is named as one of India's top 10 brands for customer experience according to a KPMG survey.
Who started naturals icecream - The story of the founder
Naturals was founded by Raghunandan Srinivas Kamath. Shrinivas was the youngest son of his parents. His mother was a homemaker and his father was a fruit vendor.
Shrinivas was not a brilliant student. He would often accompany his father to the field and sell the fruits in the market. By this, he learnt how to spot quality ripened fruits.
At the age of 14, Srinivas with his family moved to Mumbai. He once more tried his hands in formal education. After failing twice to clear his board exams Shrinivas was asked to join his elder brother in their shop 'Gokul refreshments' at Juhu Koliwada area.
Shrinivas' elder brother would sell pav bhaji and Srinivas decided to sell ice cream at the same shop.
Why ice cream?
Shrinivas knew that Indians like to end their meal on a sweet note. He also knew fruits. Therefore Shrinivas decided to sell ice cream made of real fruit pulp.
The beginning of Naturals
The idea of making ice creams with real fruit pulp was not entertained by the Kamath family. So the brothers split up their share. Shrinivas got 200 square ft of space at the Juhu Koliwada area under his possession. He clocked in just 3 Lakhs 50 Thousand initially, and Naturals has started with just 6 staff members.
Besides offering common flavours like chocolate and vanilla, Naturals welcomed unconventional flavours. Naturals has started by offering just five flavours - sitaphal (custard apple), Kaju darakh (cashew-resin), mango, chocolate and strawberry. By the end of the first weekend in 1984, Naturals managed to sell 1000 scoops of ice cream.
Fast forward to 2021, Naturals has grown to 135 outlets, offering 20 different flavours and recorded a 300 crore turnover in the last financial year. Its production staff has increased to 125 members and naturals reduce close to 20 tons of ice cream daily.
How has Naturals become a successful brand?
Kamath owes credit to natural success to its authenticity. Since the beginning naturals has believed in the age-old and original practices of making ice creams. Fruit pulp, milk and sugar is the recipe. Growing from the initial 5 flavours, Naturals has invented more than 20 flavours in house. These flavours are mostly unconventional like cucumber, Prasadam, Gajar-Halwa, Til-Gud, Chikoo etc.
Out of the several flavours, only a few flavours record most of the sales. Srinivas comments, "although many flavours do not sell they help in forming a brand. These artisanal flavours are like those art films which are not blockbusters but they receive many awards. By serving such flavours, people realise that we know about fruits better than anyone else."
The thing that naturals can improve on
Naturals started as a slow, handmade and artisanal ice cream brand, which it still is! But it can minimise its machines operations and lookout for ways to replace its plastic packaging.
What is the importance of customer feedback to Naturals?
Naturals take customer feedback very seriously.
Apart from feedbacks they also take customer experience very seriously. That day when I was watching the shop operations from outside, I could see that someone is teaching their staff members about customer service.
In another instance, they had changed the name of the former 'pickled flavour mango' to 'wild mango' based on one of its customer's suggestions.
Conclusion
Naturals is a well-known brand because of many reasons.
The ones that I could understand are given below:
Brand name: 'Naturals' brand name is quite catchy.
It takes customers to feedback seriously.
It provides a great customer experience by maintaining a clean and serene environment in its store.
Naturals keep stick to the age-old technique of making ice cream.
It is expected not to use any harmful chemicals.
Naturals has maintained its originality by offering the original fruit pulp ice cream.
Thank you
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