How to start an ice cream business
With summers coming ahead everyone’s mouth starts watering when it comes to eating ice-creams. The ice cream industry is taking a boom in India over the years. With the middle age, people, and the growing trend of dining out this industry has a lot of scope in the coming years. Since villages are also getting enough electricity now, small industries are setting up there also. As there is also a good profit in this industry so a lot of people are getting into this business. In this article, we will be telling you all about how to set up the ice cream plant.
Ice cream industry trends
The ice cream industries were really disorganized before. With the establishment of foreign brands and the retailers taking in interest, the industry is growing. The people are demanding more and more variety of ice-cream in the market, this leads to setting more manufacturing units. The few forms of ice creams available in the market are as follows:
- Low fat ice cream
- Frozen yogurt
- Ice cream rolls
- Ice cream cakes
- Milkshakes with ice creams
With the changing lifestyle and needs of people, there is a lot of scope for this industry in the coming years.
Let’s get started by setting up an ice cream factory for you.
1. Space
For starting any business the basic thing that you need is a place to set up your factory. It depends upon whether your startup is large or small. With the larger business, you need more space to set up the larger machinery. With the smaller business, the smaller machinery, the smaller place for the industry.
2. Revenue
If you already have a place to set up your industry, the next thing is the money or fund you have to set up the plant and run it smoothly. This includes money for raw material, labor, electricity, promotion, etc. In general, the range goes from 10 to 25 lakhs. Rest depends upon on what level you want to start your business.
3. Market research
With the money and revenue, the next thing is market research for setting up an ice cream industry in India. The customer’s demand and trends in the market keeps on changing. So, before you step ahead please do good research of the business you are looking to start.
4. Hire experienced ice cream manufacturing labour
If you are new to this ice cream industry/ had no knowledge of it, prefer to employ a well-experienced ice cream maker. The more the experience he has, the better and easier it will be for you to start the business.
5. Select variety to manufacture
Choose the variety and the forms of ice-cream that you are planning to manufacture. Also, you need to plan out the production capacity so that you can fulfill the orders on time. This will get it easier for you to select the machinery that you will buy.
6. Tie up with the retailers
Now comes the most important point. Imagine you are manufacturing classic ice-creams that are totally mouth-watering, but there is no one to buy. What will you do? To run a successful ice cream industry, you need retailers. Tie up with the good retail partners that are ready to showcase your ice creams in their stores. This will not only bring the sale to your business it will also help in brand promotion as well.
7. Ice cream machinery
Now is the time to buy the machinery that could help you with producing good products. For starting a small ice cream industry, these are the few essential types of machinery you need to buy:
a. Ice candy plant/ brine tank
This machinery is capable of producing a lot of ice candy in just a few minutes. Help in smoothly producing ice candies without any hustle.
b. Churner
For producing creamier ice cream you need this machine. It also increases the volume of material you put in, producing thrice the amount of output to the input. Also, it makes the creamy ice creams like vanilla creamier and smoother.
c. Deep freezer
This machine works magic in hardening your ice creams for better taste. Plus Birla Aircon deep freezer can even work for 8 to 16 hrs and that too without electricity. You just need to charge them properly for 8 to 10 hrs.
d. Instant hardener/ blast freezer
What will you do if you got a large minute order and you don’t have the stock ready? Will you so no the money coming to your business? Well, definitely not. Blast freezer or shock freezer will help you a lot in these situations. They freeze your ice cream instantly ready to get delivered. So, this is the must to have in the factory. Plus it’s much cheaper and less space-consuming then the cold rooms are.
e. Freezer on wheel
Manufacturing is one thing but will you be able to increase the sale of the product reaching the desired customer? Will you be a bigger brand in the future if your ice creams don’t really reach your customers? Hell no. For solving this issue you need ice cream carts. These are many options and varieties or carts available. The choice and selection of the model depend upon the distance you need to cover.
. Ice cream pushcart
These carts have the small wheel in the front and two bigger wheels on the side. These are generally bought if you need to sell your ice-cream at a particular place or if the movement of the cart is very less. They are generally purchased if you want to sell your ice cream within the area of 5 km.
. Ice cream tricycle
The tricycle has the cart part in the front with the handle to operate it. It has two bigger wheels on the sides of the cart attached to the front. The cycle is attached to the back of the cart. The cycle is similar to the normal bicycle but a lot heavier than that to hold the weight of the freezer. They are generally purchased by those who need to sell their ice creams within the area of 10 to 15 km.
. Ice cream pull cart
It’s the most demanded model among the varieties of carts. It looks similar to the Indian rickshaw. There is one big wheel in the front attached to the cycle. It has a loader at the back with two bigger wheels attached to its sides. This is the place where the freezer is kept. These are generally bought for selling ice cream up to the area of 25 km or more.
. E-rickshaw ice cream carts
These are similar to the e-rickshaw loader running on the roads. The size of the loader is designed as per the size of the freezer to carry that with safety. They are efficient in selling ice-creams to longer distances.
8. Purchase raw material
Buy the best raw material as per the ice cream variety you have selected to manufacture.
9. FSSAI license
To run the business of consumable items you need to have FSSAI( food safety and standard authority of India) license. This is the mandatory one if you want your product to become a brand. This gives assurance that the product is safe and the good raw material is being used. This also gives the assurance that the cleanliness and all is also being taken care of by the company.
10. Getting GST Number
To sell your product on a larger scale/ not just in a small area, you also need the GST( goods and service tax) number.
11. Brand promotion
Now that your product has started selling in the market, you need to promote it to increase your profits. For this get a website, promote online for faster results, etc. You can also promote through banners, etc.
Doesn’t it seem easier to start an ice cream business then you thought of? Still, searching? You can get all the solutions at BIRLA AIRCON. We manufacture all kinds of ice cream machinery as well as the branding stuff. Not only this, we will guide you from the starting until you start running the ice-cream business. So what are you waiting for, contact asap and get started?
