brand from USA which opened in Mapusa a fortnight ago, is inviting curious footfalls round the clock. The Goan finds out what’s so special about this ice cream
With popular flavours like Cookies N Cream, Cotton Candy and Double Chocolate Chip, Mini Melts is making waves in India and now in Goa. Goans seem to have enjoyed flavours like Birthday Cake, Berry’s and Butterscotch apart from Double Chocolate Chip. “We opened on May 5 and had to keep the shop open till late night as enthusiastic customers kept pouring in to taste the 15 flavours we are offering. The feedback from customers is fantastic as the ice cream is unique. Those who tasted returned with others – not once or twice, but many times. One of our customers visited us six times within the first two days,” states a happy Nandakumar Prabhu, who has taken the lead to bring Mini Melts to Goa for the first time at Mapusa. He had to purchase the special freezer from the company.
Admitting that Goa was not familiar with this ice cream concept, Prabhu states, “Goans were really happy to taste something new. However, some of our customers were familiar to it as they had tasted it in some other part of the country. They expressed happiness over finding their favourite ice cream in their own State. All of those who ate the ice cream liked it very much and came back with their friends and family. We ourselves had tasted the ice cream in Bangalore and found the concept very interesting and hence decided to bring it to Goa. We wish to expand to other parts of Goa.”
What is Mini Melts? And why’s there so much excitement about it? “Mini Melts is equally enjoyed by not just kids, but adults too,” vouches Shoeab Salim, JMD, Dulcet Ventures, who brought Mini Melts to India in 2012 and had the manufacturing unit set up in Bangalore with a capacity to produce about 70 tonnes per month. “While 70 tonnes is our full capacity, we make and sell about 22-25 tonnes currently,” briefs Shoeab, adding, “The retail price of Mini Melts starts from about Rs 60 and goes up to Rs 250.”
The brand was created by Tom Mosey from USA over 22 years ago and is now present in about 20 countries worldwide. The operations in India are carried out by Mini Melts India - Honeybee Amusements Pvt Ltd. “We do not do any advertisements. We haven’t been too aggressive with our marketing. It is only last year that we started participating in franchise shows pan India,” admits Shoeab.
Ice cream uses dairy fat (cream) while frozen desserts use vegetable oil. “Any normal ice cream is made by whipping air into the ice cream mix. Mini Melts blast freezes the ice cream mix without any air so it’s 100 per cent pure and whole. It melts in the mouth, and sticks to the tongue a bit as it is extremely cold,” smiles Shoeab and explains the innovative way that goes into its making, “Mini Melts has a unique production process which uses Liquid Nitrogen that gives it its peculiar pelletized form and is most certainly safe for consumption. It’s made at -196 degrees and needs to be stored at -40 degrees to maintain its shape. It’s also the purest ice cream you could ever get as there is absolutely no ‘air’ incorporated into the ice cream mix during production. And home deliveries are possible with the use of dry ice which is procured locally. Dry ice is solid carbon dioxide used as a cooling agent for transport and storage.”
First launched for the public in Bangalore in 2013, Mini Melts has since spread pan India at a steady pace. “We now have just over 50 outlets across India and are present in Bangalore, Mangalore, Bhatkal (Karnataka), Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Kakinada, Rajahmundry (Andhra and Telangana), Kochi, Kannur (Kerala), Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Dhulia (Maharashtra), Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Delhi, Kolkata (WB), Chennai (TN) and now Mapusa (Goa),” states Shoeab whose biggest-selling states are Andhra and Karnataka.
He currently has about 26 flavours and adds a couple of new ones every year. “This season we have launched Salted Caramel. Mini Melts’ success has largely been due to its viable and minimalistic franchise model and low investment that automatically increases ROI. Production is done in a state of the art factory made to match international standards using imported and patented technology. This facility also makes our own brand of ice cream and frozen desserts called ‘Creamy Nectar’ which is currently available across Karnataka only,” maintains Shoeab.
“We have vehicles fitted with cold rooms. We use these for bulk shipments to states in India. We do a lot of wedding and corporate events, we usually send our special freezers with the ice cream as normal freezers hold -20 degree only while ours hold - 40 which is required for Mini Melts. It’s available in five-star hotels on special orders or for functions. The necessary infrastructure required to keep MM in franchisee outlets is 100 per cent power back up for our company provided freezers, which hold -40 degrees. The return on investment (RoI) usually, is about six months for our outlets,” he adds.
Shoeab Salim, who started business at 16 had a leather garment factory in Chennai. Then a decade ago he set up a silk garment factory in Bangalore and subsequently got into cinema catering and then six years ago he started his own brand of multiplexes (Q Cinemas) across India. Currently, he has theatres in Kochi, Delhi, Kundli as well as Bhatinda. In 2013 he created Creamy Nectar making ice creams and frozen desserts. “Currently we have 72 products covering cups, cornettos, candy sticks, chocobars, bulk and family packs, sundaes, kulfis etc. We have over 1000 vending points across Karnataka and we are in talks for appointing distributors in Andhra and Maharashtra. Goa is on the cards too, as far as Creamy Nectar is considered,” smiles the dynamic entrepreneur.
