Naturals Ice Cream founder Raghunandan Kamath passed away following a brief illness. Born to a mango vendor in a village in Mangaluru, Kamath went on to establish Naturals, an ice cream parlour estimated to be worth Rs 400 crore today.
A young 14-year-old Kamath boarded a train from Mangaluru (then Mangalore) and came to Mumbai (then Bombay). After working at his brother’s restaurant, Kamath had an idea — if ice creams have fruit flavours, why can’t they have real fruits? He decided to fill this void in the market. But unsure of whether customers would come, he began his business by serving pav-bhaji as the main dish and the ice cream as an add-on.
The company informed about Kamath’s death via a post on X (formally Twitter), “Our thoughts on the sad demise of our patron and founder of Naturals Ice Cream, Late (Shri) Raghunandan Kamath. Indeed a very sad and unfortunate day for us.”
Kamath grew up helping his father in selling mangoes in a village in Karnataka's Mangaluru. This was when he learned the art of picking the ripe fruit, plucking it, sorting it, and preserving it. At 14, he left his studies and joined his brother's eatery with a dream of creating handcrafted ice cream filled with real fruit pulp.
Fondly, remembered as the ‘Ice cream man of India’ Kamath’s first ice cream parlour was launched in 1984 in Juhu, with the initial menu featuring around 12 flavours.
Naturals Ice-Cream had 135 locations nationwide by 2020. One of its unique selling propositions is that the company sells ice cream, which they say is made from natural ingredients without artificial flavouring.
Kamath is survived by his wife and two sons, including Siddhant, the director of Naturals.