Supply chain initiatives of Baskin

Robbins India in distribution

Aditya Todi
Abhishek Nair
G Vinod
Gomathi Shankar
Mohamed Khatib
Sameer Parandkar
 Facts at a scoop
• Turned 65 in July 2010 globally
• Entered India in 1993 as a JV with Ghai Group in Mumbai
• Now run in India and SAARC countries by Graviss Foods
• Graviss Foods also runs Kwality and Rich’s ice creams in
India
• Turnover of INR 60 cr. in FY08 . 35%
growth against industry average of 12%
• Ice cream retail industry in India in 2009 Rs.16 bn.
Organized sector took nearly 30 %.
• Amul is the market leader in the overall industry

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Baskin Robbins worldwide

Over 30 countries worldwide

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 Spread of outlets
• Near 6000 outlets globally
• In India in 2007 – 200 stores in 35 cities
• Now 400 outlets in 95 cities
• Additionally 600 hotels & 600 modern format
retail stores
• Announced upto 30% expansion this year
(Upto Tier IV)
• Cannibalization is the objective
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 Manufacture
• Manufacture of ice creams for the whole of
South Asia in Pune
• Most vital ingredients imported; Chocolate and
flavours are the major imports
• All varieties manufactured in the plant itself. No
postponement
• Raw material cost rose high due to commodity
price hikes recently
• BR forced to raise prices
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 Initiatives
• This presentation will deal with two initiatives
taken by Baskin Robbins in the area of SCM
– Outsourcing distribution from factory to last mile
to a cold chain logistics company nationwide
– Building IT infrastructure and MIS to aid in
inventory planning and distribution

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 Problems in distribution
• Cold chain logistics is central to the ice cream business
• It is not the core competency of BR
• They tried their own logistics system but failed
• In the words of CEO South Asia Pankaj Chathurvedi ,
“One of our best decisions, which has paid us handsome dividend over the past few
years, has been our move to outsource our distribution and logistics to core players.
Cold chain logistics is central to the ice cream business but the irony here was that it
was not our core competency. As a result when we operated it, we were expending
valuable resources to conduct this. Five years ago we decided to completely
outsource this part of our business (from factory to the last mile). This has helped us
immensely in allocating valuable resources to more gainful activities.”

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 Outsourced distribution
• Snowman Cold Chain logistics is the national
supply chain partner for BR
• Challenges to be tackled
– Prebuilt product needed to be stored at the right
temperature so that quality is maintained. Power
fluctuations and lack of infrastructure are problems
– Lack of Temperature Controlled Warehouses on Pan India
basis
– Seasonality of the demand for ice creams

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 Snowman Logistics
• Snowman provides -25° C at its dedicated
warehouses to store prebuilt blocks
• Such long duration storage is done for the first
time in India to offset demand during the
season
• Snowman has 18 warehouses in India with
requisite infrastructure (ISO 22000 certified)

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Snowman W/H network

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 BR Distribution diagram
Milk run adopted through dedicated trucks

W/H 1

Pune Regional outlets

W/H 2
manufacturing
plant

W/H 3

Dedicated
W/H 18
temperature-controlled
warehouses
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 Transport – Bangalore example
• Bangalore has 55 franchise outlets of BR
• Snowman implements milk-run system for
distributing from warehouse to outlets
• 9 different routes are used on different days of
the week
• 10 trucks are used

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 Variety
• Baskin Robbins is renowned for its variety of
ice creams (the 31 variety story is a significant brand property)
• All varieties are manufactured at factory; No
postponement
• Portfolio rationalization done frequently
• Recently in June 2010, five flavours are retired
to “Deep freeze”
• New flavours to be added to the portfolio

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 IT infrastructure
• BR integrated all its outlets with a single MIS
infrastructure
• One head office for dissemination, collection,
compilation and analysis of all information
• 5 Regional offices for co-ordination with franchisees
• Gives a point-of-sale solution to the customer at the
front end
• Also aids production planning, inventory planning,
distribution and marketing

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 Position & Competition
• BR positioned between mass brands and high-
end brands Rs. 45-60/scoop
• Mass – Amul, Kwality Walls etc. around Rs. 15-20
• High end – Haagen-Daaz, Movenpic etc.
Rs.150/scoop

• Gelato is closest ice cream competition

• Café Coffee Day and Barista indirect
competitors

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 Differences in SKUs
• Baskin Robbins ice creams are not sold in pre-
packed SKUs like 50 ml, 100 ml etc.
• Mass players like Amul, Kwality etc. follow this
• BR ice creams are sold in scoops
• Outlets stock the ice cream varieties in frozen
containers at store
• BR ice creams available only in BR outlets
unlike Amul, Kwality etc.
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 Benefits to BR
• Huge cost savings due to outsourced distribution
and warehousing
• Distribution efficiency enabled rapid expansion
across the country
• Outsourcing also allows BR to focus on its core
competency in product portfolio, taste and
service
• MIS makes planning of production and inventory
easier
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 Testimonial for benefit
• "Snowman has become an extension of our
company since they manage our end to end supply
chain solutions quite Efficiently by maintaining high
standards of process and systems and more over all
in temperature controlled environment which is a
major Challenge in India."
Subroto Mukherjee 
Chief Operating Officer 
Graviss Foods Pvt. Ltd
(as seen in Snowman’s website)

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 References
• http://retailnu.wordpress.com/2008/05/22/baskin-robbins-eyes-small
er-cities-in-india
/
• http://
voicendata.ciol.com/content/goldbook/goldbook07/107031211.asp
• http://
indiafranchiseblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/baskin-robbins-franchise-str
ategy-to.html
• http://
www.helium.com/items/1894914-national-ice-cream-day-2010-baskin
-robbins-retires-five-flavors
• www.snowman.in
• www.baskinrobbins.com
• Classroom notes of SCM
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 Thank You

Your patient attention truly deserves

an ice-cream !

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