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Naturals ice cream founder biography : This article is about the success story of naturals ice cream founder,Raghunandan Kamath. This case study is about the person who had not any interest on reading. He completed just 9th standard reading. He would wash cups and plates in his brother’s hotel.
He did the job of washing cups and plates in his brother’s hotel. In spite of working all these he become a successful person. You are informed here about the journey and success story of mr raghunandan kamath. So let’s start:
Mr Raghunandan Kamath borned in 1954 on mulki,karnataka. Mulki was a village,located in karnataka. There was no school in mulki. Two teachers used to come in village to teach all the 40 to 50 students. The students were belong to different ages and different classes like one was reading in class III and other was reading in class V.
This two teachers were teaching all the students together. If they teach fifth standard lesson, then all students (belong to different classes) have to learn that lesson. Thus his education was going. This was how his education was going on. He had not any interest on reading. He was failing again and again in english subject. He did not want to go to the teachers to read. For this, most of his childhood was passed in the game, travel and gossiping.
He failed in 7th standard for two times. His father was a fruit seller. He spent most of his childhood with her father. When he was 14 years old his whole family shifted in mumbai. Their financial condition was too weak. So they lived in 12*12 room in mumbai. After shifting in mumbai he wore slippers for first time. This was their financial status.
Naturals ice cream founder biography। Naturals success story।
There raghunandan’s brother opened a restaurant. Raghunandan was admitted in school near to the restaurant by his parent. His parent wanted that raghunandan would become a successful person by reading in school. He failed 10th standard exam for two times in this school. For this he was out from the school. Then his parent adviced him to help his brother in hotel.
His brother opened a south-indian restaurant,named Gokul Refreshments at santacruise in mumbai. His brother sold ice cream and south-indian food. There raghunandan was given the small work like washing dishes and plates,handling ice parlor etc by his brother. All of these he liked most the work of ice cream parlor. And many ideas came to his head. He said the ideas to his brother but his brother didn’t hear his ideas.
He observed that customers were enjoying the ice cream more than south indian foods. The ice cream was made in their home. The part of ice cream in their hotel was very little. But most of the people liked the ice cream. He personally loved ice cream very much. So he thought that he should make home made such ice cream and they would not have any artificial flavors.
Ice cream that is only made by milk,sugar,fruit. Then anyone did not care about his ideas. But he promised himself that when he would get the right time and opportunity he must enter this business. Gradually the focus of his brother moved from the restaurant business. For this the business was going to loss. So the business was divided into brothers. And some money came in the part of raghunandan.
He had a clear idea on his head then that he would open a ice cream shop. But when he entered the business he realised that the capital that he had was not sufficient to run the business. He needed more capital. Then his wife encouraged him and told that he should borrow some money from his friends or relatives.
And the same thing happened like the statement. He borrowed some money from his friends and started his business. Then ice cream parlor was not as available as now. Then ice cream was considered as a luxurious product and its price was also too high. So most of the people preferred ‘KULFI‘ than ice cream. For this there was no dedicated ice cream parlor. Because the customers of ice cream was rare. Then there was only one ice cream parlor in whole mumbai.
But in spite of being reality he thought to open a dedicated ice cream parlor. He also knew that if he would open ice cream parlor then location would play a great role. Because then ice cream was eaten by only rich people. For his ice cream parlor he decided the location ‘Juhu‘ where many celebreties and rich people lived.
In 1984 he opened his first ice cream parlor in juhu. Then he sold ‘Powbhaji‘ and also ice cream. He sold powbhaji because if ice cream business was not going well then minimum all the cost would come from powbhaji. Then he had no more staffs. His wife handled the spices and other equipments of powbhaji.
He launched five flavors like mango,strawberry,chocolate etc at first. And he earned 1-1.5 lakh revenue in first year. But he was not happy with his performance. So he just focused on his ice cream business. And he closed the powbhaji business. This decision was obviously very risky. But raghunandan kamath was bullish from before. He applied a new business strategy and he only focused on one business.
Gradually many celebrities and famous personality became fan of his ice cream. Once a west indian cricketer,viven rchard told in a television show about the good taste and products of naturals ice cream. The people who come to eat ice cream gave their feedback to raghunandan kamath. Some of them gave also business tips. He took this feedback positively. Some people adviced him that they visited in foreign country and they tasted other ice cream and it was good so you should apply those in your store.
And working upon this feedback he took different flavors in his parlor. He noted down the feedback of customers and tried to apply the feedback as soon as possible. He followed the feedback of customers. Because he believes that customers are the best teachers. Customer’s feedback helped him till this stage of the journey. And the flavors of customer’s choice are now the top selling products of naturals.
All the things and business were going well. But on this time period his one family member opened a new ice cream parlor in same area. He knew all the recipes. Then kamath thought that he should expand his business. For this he took 65 lakh rupees loan from bank. He invested in factory. He increased his staffs and started to prepare more ice creams. Soon he made its franchises.
And he opened five branches in mumbai. Gradually the competition become very high. Other brands brought their ice creams in market and it was also natural ice cream. But the difference was that they told that they made it naturally but actually they prepared with artificial products. Where the products of naturals were fully natural. The products of naturals are made with fruit,milk and sugar.
Without it there are no chemical products. In fact he started to develop new mechines to do different his manufacturing process so that he could develop a competitive advantage. He developed machines that could seperate the peel from fruit or seed from fruit. Thus he customized all the process. Where other companies used ready made machines for these. Raghunath kamath was very strict about the product’s quality control. All the things were predecided about product’s basic needs. He didn’t change the suppliers.
At first he brought milk from nasik and he bought all fruits from his dedicated suppliers. The products that he made was made fresh. He couldn’t keep the stocks more than two days. Thus he maintained the quality control. Later he started to prepare the mass production of his products. He makes his ice creams mainly in kandivali that is established in wide range of 25,000 square feet. Till now he goes to different places in the search for new flavour and new recipes.
He did many experiments in his whole journey. Some experiments became fail and some became succeed. Once he launched turmeric flavor. Now come with marketing of his products. He spends less than 1% of his profit for marketing his products. Mainly the marketing of his products was happening by Word of Mouth.
It means that the people who taste natuals ice cream tell other people about its taste. Thus most people attracts on naturals ice creams by word of mouth publicity. The theory’ connecting the dots ‘ of steve jobs,co-founder of apple fully applies on raghunandan kamath’s journey. His father was a fruit seller so he knew how to find the good fruits,how to use the fruits and how to store the fruits etc.
His mother was a good cook and she knew many tricks. And mr kamath used the tricks in the recipe of naturals ice cream. And when he was working to his brother then he learned how to make good ice creams. Thus his journey was made by connecting the dots with each other.
First year his revenue was 1-1.5 lakh rupees. In 2009 his revenue was 30 crore. His revenue was 40 crore rupees in 2011-12. And now revenue of naturals is more than 200 crore rupees. And he have now more than 135 outlets that is mainly located in maharastra,gujrat,karnataka,madhya pradesh etc.
He served more than 100 varieties now. He daily makes 20 tons ice cream and sells it everyday. He also focuses on customer’s experience. KPMG includes naturals in top 10 indian brands according to taste. Kamath thinks that he can expand his business through technology. He is planning to expand it in singapore, srilanka etc. He tells that learning is very important in life.
These small learning can help you to make you big. For him the journey was not too easy. At first he had no money. So he started his business with borrowed money. He examined the taste and other things of naturals. But he had sugar to diabetes. For this he couldn’t taste the ice cream eating it. For this he developed a new technique. He understood the taste of ice creams by its colour,shine and customer’s reactions.
Thus he developed his products. Now his two sons and some family members are continuing his business. He doesn’t change his root after getting success. He takes part in many philanthropic activities. He is a big donar of the school from where he was out in 10th class.
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Best wishes to success.
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what is the Naturals ice cream founder biography (early)?
He failed in 7th standard for two times. His father was a fruit seller. He spent most of his childhood with her father. When he was 14 years old his whole family shifted in mumbai. Their financial condition was too weak. So they lived in 12*12 room in mumbai