Kwality Wall’s ice creams will be milk-based from now, become cheaper: Report

Kwality Wall’s ice-creams, which include Cornetto, and Kwality Wall’s brands, will now be dairy-based. Magnum Ice Cream Company's global CEO, Peter ter Kulve, said that the company, headquartered in the Netherlands, has decided to go full dairy, with half of the portfolio transitioning this year and the rest next year. 

According to a report in The Economic Times, Peter ter Kulve told the daily: “We are not a frozen dessert company anywhere in the world; we are an ice cream company.  In India, we changed everything, everything.”

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The company is also planning to cut prices by as much as 30 per cent in some categories, while also adding local flavours like kulfi and kesar bhog. So if they are transitioning to dairy now, what were the ice-creams made of? As per the daily. The frozen desserts were made using vegetable fats such as palm oil.

The company said that Indian consumers would increasingly prefer milk-based products that they perceive to be higher quality and more nutritious. 

This is not only an India-specific call. The company has made this decision across its presence where they are undertaking a broader overhaul. It is all for good reason because they are expecting India, a $200 million business for the company, to become its biggest market.

It is to be noted that Magnum, since the beginning, has been a milk-based ice cream and not a frozen dessert.

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It is also planning to accelerate capital deployment in India. Unilever spun off its global ice-cream operations to give the business greater autonomy and flexibility. 

Ter Kulve said that there is no way to ensure good cost, quality and service when an ice-cream is coming out of one place – Nashik – for the entire country. “In Turkey we have one cabinet for every 350 people. Ultimately I will need a million cabinets in India,” he told the daily.