Carvel, a renowned American legacy brand famous for its soft serve, has partnered with Unify Foodworks to debut in the Indian market this August, starting with its first outlet in New Delhi, according to Sumer Sethi, founder of Unify Foodworks.
Holding the exclusive master franchise rights for Carvel in India, Unify Foodworks plans to invest ₹40 crore to open 100 stores over the next five years.
“We are eying to capture 7-8 per cent market share of soft serve ice creams over the next 5 years,” he asserted.
“In my experience, what works in India is when a brand owns a category. It’s very difficult to dislodge that kind of loyal consumer recall. That’s why we decided to bring a soft serve brand to India. Carvel has its patented recipe that can produce the freshest form of ice cream in-store,” he further explained.
In the first phase, the brand plans to open 50 stores focused in and around North India, offering a portfolio of 32 SKUs.
“The average size of the store will span across 300 sq.ft, and all the offerings have been competitively priced as we are targeting the masses,” he stated.
The brand anticipates that its stores will achieve breakeven within 18 to 24 months of operations.
“From our second year of operations, we plan to enter online as well,” he said.
The brand aims to launch 5 outlets by the end of this fiscal year.
At present, Carvel operates in over five countries with a network of more than 400 ice cream stores worldwide.
Moving forward, Unify Foodworks plans to bring Rubio’s Coastal Grill to India by the end of this fiscal year, rebranding it as Moe’s Casa Mexicana.
