Amitabh Bachchan To Akshay Kumar: Know The B-Town Backstory Of THIS Mumbai's Ice Cream Brand Worth Rs 3 Crore

Enjoying presence in more than forty Indian cities, ice cream brand 'Naturals' has created a niche in the industry with its wide range of desserts made of only three ingredients: milk, sugar and fruits. Back in 1984, Naturals founder, late Raghunandan Srinivas Kamath, used a secret formula to build his business, ie Bollywood stardom.

From Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, to Akshay Kumar, nearly every Bollywood celebrity of the 80s and 90s was attracted towards Kamath's Naturals ice cream parlour in Juhu, Mumbai.

Strategic Choice To Start from Mumbai's Juhu

While Kamath was ready to use his father's fruit expertise and his mother's hacks to start an ice cream business, he strategically chose to set up his ice cream parlour in Juhu, Mumbai. The idea was to grab the attention of top Bollywood celebrities living in he area.

"Celebrities including Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha and Hema Malini stayed in the area. I thought they'd draw more crowds," Economic Times quoted Kamath from a Telegraph interview in 2015.

The idea worked! Naturals became a go-to place for celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Akshay Kumar, etc.

From Pav Bhaji To Ice Cream

The idea of using Bollywood stardom in Juhu was not the only hack Kamath used to build his business. Before starting Naturals, Kamath began building his loyal customers by offering ice cream as a complimentary to his customers when he began his business with serving Pav Bhaji as the main dish.

Ice Cream of Juhu Scheme

Later, the Kamath shifted to a full-fledged ice-cream business and Naturals became so popular in Mumbai that it was later known as "Ice Cream of Juhu Scheme", according to the company's official website.

The ever-increasing popularity also started causing huge traffic jams in the area in the 1990s, and later the business expanded to four more parlours in Mumbai. What initially started with twelve flavours, is now a popular ice cream brand across India with more than a hundred varieties of ice cream. The company claims to stand by its principle of adding no artificial flavours.

The ice cream brand is now operating more than 130 outlets in various cities across India. The company offers on an average 20 flavours at one time. It generally stick to the season of fruits for offering ice cream of their flavour.

Raghunandan Kamath was born into a small village in Mangalore to a family of a fruit vendor. During his childhood he had assisted his father in his business. As per Naturals' website Kamath learned the art of picking the ripe fruit, plucking it, sorting it and preserving it while accompanying his father in his business. Later, he left his father's business and shifted from Mangalore to Mumbai (earlier known as Bombay).

The company has now been run by Kamath's Ourtimes Ice Creams Private Limited and has a turnover of nearly Rs 300 crore, (in financial year 2019-20). Its stores are present in Indian states like Maharashtra, Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, etc.

The company also registered a Limca Book of Records for the largest ice cream slab, which weighed 3,000 kilograms in February 2009. It also received Corporation Bank's National SME's Excellence Award in the Food and Agro Industry in 2006.