Naturals- an ice cream of juhu scheme, is real natural. Its yum. It’s a treat to our taste buds. If you've eaten it, you swear by it. I do. The unique feature of these ice creams is that it has no artificial flavors, preservatives or stabilizers, only fresh fruit pulp and dry fruits which draw us towards the Naturals.
Starting with around 10 flavors in a 300 sq feet ice cream parlor at juhu in 1984, today has 125 flavor options available at 120 doors across India. The numbers have changed magically.
The brand's only production facility is situated in Charkop, a suburb of Kandivali in Mumbai. The company supplies to its own stores everyday, which is unique. The company spends less than 1% of its sales revenue on advertising, relying instead upon brand recognition and word of mouth to attain revenues. Well, this is working for them.
The journey of Kamath started when he broke up with his elder brother and set up Naturals in the share he inherited. From the beginning he was at enormous pains to maintain the standards of quality, something that he does till date. Seasonal fruits are brought in bulk every day. The extracted pulp is heated to get rid of unwanted bacteria and then stored in aluminum-sealed packages. He hardly had any machine to process and get his own fruit pulp earlier.
Accompanying his father to village fairs to sell fruits, Kamath unknowingly developed a connection with fruits that inspired him to use them in the making of natural ice creams. Emboldened by the support of his wife, he started with 100000 rupees as his seed capital to realize his instinct and achieve his vision. His small shop is three times the original now.
"When I was a child, I was fascinated by aeroplanes flying over our village. I was spanked so many times by my teacher for running out in the middle of the class to look at them. I could never imagine I would be in one of those planes, that too in business class and look at my school from high above." Says Kamath.
Entrepreneurship is living few years of your life like most people won't so you can spend the rest of your life like the most people can't.
Honestly, difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations. A person, who wore sandals for the first time when he came to Mumbai at the age of fifteen, today heads a rupees 108 crores turnover ice cream company.
