Ice cream manufacturers are hoping for bumper sales this summer so that they can recoup the ‘heavy losses’ they sustained in the aftermath of the April earthquake last year when sales dried up. With this in mind, the companies have lined up various offerings to cater to a swelling population of ice cream lovers.

Shyam Sundar Lal Kakshapati, managing director of National Ice Cream Industries which manufactures Ajjabko ice cream, said, “The summer season accounts for 80 percent of our annual revenue which amounts to Rs250 million to Rs300 million. The season has just started, and we are ready to fill refrigerators with the 14 flavours in our line-up.”

Kakshapati added, “We had been planning to launch premium range ice creams last year, but it did not pan out after we lost 50 percent of our sales to the earthquakes which struck during our peak season.” Among the 14 flavours, vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, 21 love and butter scotch are the best selling flavours, according to Kakshapati. Currently, Ajjabko ice creams are sold through 800 retailers in the Kathmandu Valley.  

Along with National Ice Cream Industries, Kathmandu Dairy, Sujal Dairy and NDs are the leaders in the ice cream market. Baskin-Robbins, Vadilal and Cream Bell, among others, are the leading international brands in the Nepali market.

Traders said that domestic brands account for more than 75 percent of sales.

Meanwhile, some manufacturers fear that it will be difficult to make up for last year’s losses as load-shedding has cut their production capacity.

“We faced significant losses last year as our products remained unsold and we did not have adequate electricity to keep them fresh. Thus, we had to dump our unsold stocks. We have to work with a limited production capacity which has not been upgraded yet,” said Pradeep Maharjan, proprietor of Kathmandu Dairy which produces Snow Fun ice cream.

“Our sales slumped to 5 percent of the usual figure and we aim to achieve a growth rate of 50 percent this season.” According to Maharjan, the company expects to sell 500 litres daily during May and June, the peak summer season when most party palaces host marriage parties.

Snow Fun ice cream comes in 17 different flavours and they are available in 50-millilitre, 100-millilitre, 500-millilitre and 4-litre packs with prices ranging from Rs25 to Rs1,100.

According to traders, the organised ice cream market in the Kathmandu Valley is worth around Rs1 billion annually, and 40 percent of the total sales occur from April to September. The valley’s teeming population consumes 4,000 litres of ice cream daily. Multiplexes, party palaces and shopping malls account for a majority of the sales.