Vadilal

Devansh Sanghvi

Type	Public company :  : VADILALIND
Industry	Conglomerate
Founded	1907
Headquarters	Ahmedabad, India
Key people	Ramchandrabhai Gandhi, (Chairman emirate), Rajesh Gandhi Managing Director, Devanshu Gandhi Managing Director
Products	Ice cream, Processed food, Foreign Exchange, Chemicals, Real Estate
Revenue	₹4.5 billion (US$67 million)
Number of employees	1000
Parent	Vadilal Group
Website	www.vadilalicecreams.com

Vadilal Industries Ltd is India’s second largest ice cream player. The company is also one of the largest processed food players in India with significant exports of frozen vegetables and ready to eat snacks, curries and breads.

Vadilal Industries has come a long way since its inception in 1926, when Vadilal Gandhi started a soda fountain in 1926. He passed on the business to his son, Ranchod Lal, who ran a one-man operation. Eventually, Ranchod Lal's sons, Ramchandra and Lakshman, inherited the business and they were instrumental in giving a new direction to the company. The duo imparted a new vision to the venture and infused a spirit of calculated risk-taking into the firm. As a result, by the 1970s, the Vadilal Company had already evolved into a modern corporate entity.

Vadilal Industries has extensive reach. A major success factor has been its ability to cater to different market segments through multiple product ranges. Vadilal has range of ice creams in the country with 150 plus flavours and they are sold in a variety of more than 250 packs and forms. The range includes cones, candies, bars, ice-lollies, small cups, big cups, family packs, and economy packs. It offers something for all tastes, preferences and pockets.

Vadilal Industries has two ice cream production facilities – one at Pundhra in Gandhinagar district, Gujarat and the other one at Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh. It has a very strong distribution network of 50,000 retailers, 250 SKUs (stock keeping units), 550 distributors, 32 CNF and 250 vehicles for delivery of goods. Through the franchisee route, Vadilal has set up over 140 'Happinezz' parlors for selling ice creams and new ones are coming up every month.

Vadilal entered the processed foods industry to optimise utilisation of its extensive cold chain network in the 1990s. It currently caters to the domestic and export markets with products such as frozen vegetables and ready to eat snacks, curries and breads. This business is poised for strong growth in the coming years owing to greater urbanisation within India and increasing demand for Indian food amongst developed regions like the USA and western Europe.

The company’s national ice cream market share would have been even higher but for the fact that it does not operate in major consuming regions like Maharashtra and the four southern states as these are covered by another faction of the Vadilal family.