Bottled up – The Keventers growth story!
With global populations set to rise to 8 billion by 2030, there are considerable opportunities for Indian food producers and in particular for online food industriesto respond to this fast-growing marketplace. Keventers, a 92-year-old iconic brand in the Indian dairy sector, once metonym with ice cream carts in Lutyens’ Delhi, has started to make its headway towards a thumping come-back to become one of the fastest growing and most recognized quick service restaurants.
Founded by a Swedish National, Edward Keventer in the early half of the 20th century, and later taken over by Indian industrialist, Ram Krishna Dalmia, Keventers is now being promoted again with well thought and implemented ideas by the latter’s descendant, his grandson, Agastya Dalmia,and his partners Aman Arora and Sohrab Sitaram.
Today,within a span of just 3 years, Keventers has grown from one outlet at Select Citywalk in 2015 to over 270+ outlets across India in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Mysore, Indore, Goa, Dehradun, Ludhiana, Jalandhar to name a few, and across the world in countries like Nepal, UAE and now even Africa. The company has reached an extraordinary milestone by creating a distinct identity globally for their milkshakes as a viable beverage for today’s customer especially the generation Y/millennials by giving it a modern, cool and aspirational avatar.
“When we thought of reviving Keventers in 2015 we wanted to create a business which had the inherent ability to be scaled on a global level. Furthermore, since our specialization and historical business was in the same sphere we were very familiar with the space and sector. In addition, customers have always associated us as a dairy brand so we did not want to get into something which would take us away from the connect we already had.” promulgates Mr.Dalmia.
Entrepreneurial Journey
At the outset, Keventers had to struggle because of the strong pre-defined belief from every player in the business that a QSR specializing only in milkshakes cannot be profitable by itself. But this belief was soon nullified by Keventers profitable business performance. The company’s major hurdle was that it was popular with Gen X but not the Gen Y. In order to succeed, the company had to focus on the Gen Y as their target audience who look for freshness, taste and texture, variety and convenient packing and make the Keventers milkshake a preferred beverage option which was a challenge since as they were not aware too aware of the brand. Unearthing age-old traditional recipes for their milkshakes was a difficult task since most of the people associated with were long gone. Finding great quality milk was one of the biggest issues of the company for which they looked in every nook and corner of India as well as abroad and understood the current fat content of the milk and the ice-creams before finally choosing the kind they would use for our milkshakes. Finding the right joint venture partners with similar business spirit was something that was probably the most difficult for them.
The Market Adaptation of Keventers
Nowadays, the fast food industries are prioritizing ease of access and convenience. Changing the course of the delivery medium is essential for the fast food industry, which in turn has given a rise to the micro delivery and hyper convenience system.
Accessibility and convenience have become a necessity in daily life. In today’s time, consumers’ habit of stocking up groceries has shifted to more frequent needs-based trips. Thus, this change has probed for more micro-delivery and hyper convenience channels to adapt to the consumers’ desire for immediate, need-based replenishment options. This has created a huge opportunity in the market that brands have now started to tap. By combining innovation and technology, together they are changing the way Indians eat.
The company has also diversified their business in the dairy and allied segments. To cater to this need of the ever-evolving consumer, they recently introduced The Milk Co., a mobile application based premium milk delivery service across Delhi – NCR, via which the company aims to produce and deliver up to 20,000 liters of milk per day by the end of this year. With the milk vertical, the group is keen to capture 20% of the premium milk market in Delhi/NCR and to become one of the leading players in the segment by end of this financial year. Currently, the premium segment of the milk market is growing at a rate of 30% which is the reason for many new players entering this area and Keventers is looking at 20k liters per day by 2020.
Further, the company has expanded their product portfolio with the introduction of Ice Creamery, ice cream parlors that serve a wide range of premium and delicious flavors. This latest venture by the house of Keventers will serve a delectable range of desserts to connoisseurs of this cold treat and celebrate true love for ice cream with an array of unique flavors and diversified product offerings.
Edge over the Peers
The brand stands apart because of its original recipe and cool packaging. The young generation identifies with the brand because of its retro-chic packaging (Bottles) and with the older generation, it is about connecting with a brand with a legacy which still sells original recipes. The idea behind the glass bottle was indeed to get it into every household which the company have managed to do–with people re-using their bottles for anything and everything under the sun–for decor, as a storage unit for water, to pot a plant or get the kids to drink some milk, the company takes great pride in the brand and the legacy it has been able to create amongst the public.
Transformation in the Entrepreneurial World
The company advocates the ideology of steadily moving fast but and setting up for a win when it comes to entrepreneurship. Successful entrepreneurs are only the ones who win in the long game. That said, modern Indian companies are now weaving a commitment to grow into their corporate DNA by fostering companywide awareness of consumers’ needs, investing enough in R&D, and unlocking entrenched organizational structures. As information grows (in both access and volume) and Indian consumers and businesses are more able to apply this information in their decision-making, they are becoming increasingly empowered. Consequently, companies are coming to rethink their business models and competitive strategies to serve these customers and turn profits.
Roadmap
The company refrains from setting long-term goals for the brand and instead set achievable short-term goals to accelerate their growth. Over time, the end goal is simple, to create a distinct presence for Keventers across the world by expanding and entering key markets.
Key Figures
Aman Arora, a graduate in Economics from Delhi University, is the Co-Founder & Director of Keventers. He has a natural entrepreneurial flair with a creative eye. He draws his inspiration from Gary Vaynerchuk, one of the most popular speakers in the world.
“Being the successful entrepreneur, an internet sensation and a passionate speaker, Gary has continued to inspire people across all age groups. His zeal to motivate people and instill confidence definitely correlates with what I preach in my life,” says Mr. Arora.
Agastya Dalmia, a graduate in English from Delhi University is the Co-Founder & Director of Keventers. He is a charismatic person with strong negotiation and networking skills.
“For me, business leaders like Dhirubhai Ambani (Reliance) and Deep Kalra (MakeMyTrip) have always inspired with their sheer grit and courage to think of an idea and getting people on board to rally with them to make into a success”, says Mr.Dalmia.
