Starting from humble origins, Naturals founder Raghunandan Kamath is the man behind the fruit ice cream revolution in India.
Gone are the days when ice cream flavours revolved around vanilla, chocolate and butterscotch. Today, fruit flavoured ice creams are all the rage. These deserts use fresh, natural fruits instead of artificial flavouring. Naturals Ice Cream is the first name that comes to people’s minds when thinking about fruit ice cream. In fact, several other fruit ice cream brands that later emerged took cue from ‘Naturals’ when naming their brands.
Naturals is one of the fastest emerging brands in India. Today, the company has over 135 outlets and a turnover of Rs 300 crore. The big brand it is today, the founder of Naturals, the man behind the fruit ice cream revolution, started from humble origins before going on to write an unlikely success story.
A fruitseller’s son, Raghunandan Kamath hails from a small village in Karnataka. Born to a poor family where his father barely made enough to feed his seven children, Kamath did not have the best of education. He even failed in Class 10 Board exam twice.
At 14, Kamath arrived in Mumbai along with his family. After being unable to go beyond Class 10, the young boy joined his brother in his small outlet making South Indian food. It was here, in the city of dreams, that Kamath came up with the idea of making fruit ice cream.
His brother did not take the fruit ice cream idea seriously, but Kamath did not give up. When he parted ways with his brother in 1984, he used up the Rs 3 lakh that he got for his efforts and invested it into a small shop selling pav bhaji and Kamath’s recipe of ice cream.
Slowly his business started picking up. The name Naturals spread from word to mouth, with Kamath having no money to spend on advertising.
Several celebrities, including Big B, started coming to his store for the novel flavours. One highlight moment that Kamath remembers came in 1986, when legendary West Indian cricketer Vivian Richards praised his Chikoo and Custard Apple flavoured ice creams on a TV show with Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar as host.
A fan favourite for customers across cities from Delhi NCR to Mumbai, Raghunandan Kamath’s Naturals is also among the leading brands in terms of customer experience today.
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 "Fruitseller’s son who created a Rs 300 crore ice cream empire: Read Raghunandan Kamath’s rags-to-riches story")
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