How milkshake brand Keventers reinvented itself to clock a revenue growth of 50% in FY 2022-23
Delhi-based milkshake brand Keventers saw an increase of 50% in revenues in financial year 2022-23, according to Agastya Dalmia, director of Keventers. The brand also opened 30 new outlets in the last financial year. Dalmia claims that Keventers has had an upwards graph since it was relaunched in 2015 with a 50% compound annual growth rate and is today a leading player in the country’s Rs 5.3 billion (2022) milkshake market.
The company runs 115 company-owned stores spread across 65 cities in the country, most of which are in the food courts of premium malls. The brand is also present in some high streets. “However, food courts have been the most profitable for the brand, especially in malls like Select Citywalk and Promenade which have 40% higher sales as compared to other malls,” Dalmia said.
Old bottle, new image
In 2015, the 1889-established dairy products brand was reintroduced as a milkshake brand by Agastya Dalmia, the grandson of its owner Ram Krishna Dalmia, after being dormant for several decades when the senior Dalmia lost interest in it. As a trial, the young Dalmia, along with his friend Aman Arora, started with just one outlet at Select Citywalk. Encouraged by the response, he started opening outlets at premium malls across Delhi, before taking it beyond the capital.
“We took the franchise route to expand outside Delhi since we didn’t think that there was enough brand recall. To my surprise, we received good response from Bombay (Mumbai), Bengaluru and other metropolitan cities,” Dalmia shared.
The brand continued expansion with the help of franchisees till 2018. In 2019, it shut down the franchise model to pivot to a company-owned store model as it wanted to own the customer experience. Currently, the brand has all company-owned outlets. Also, the outlets only offered takeaways. It also started deliveries in the same year. “The shift was a bit challenging initially. Now we have stabilized and our business is a combination of 50% deliveries and 50% takeaways,” he said adding that the brand has tied up with Zomato and Swiggy for deliveries.
More on the menu
Keventers today offers many other products in addition to milkshakes. These include ice creams in a variety of flavours like coconut, chikoo, tiramisu and more. “Milkshakes and ice creams are the two main areas for the brand,” Dalmia said.
The brand has also launched iced beverages and smoothies and a variety of snacks to go with the drinks.
In March 2023, the brand launched vegan ice-creams. “To expand our customer base to the people who don’t prefer dairy products, we thought of launching vegan ice creams. Soon, we are also going to launch vegan milkshakes,” revealed Dalmia.
Keventers outsources the manufacturing of its products. “We buy raw materials and give our manufacturers to convert them into the final product using our recipe,” said Dalmia.
The brand has its own cold storage warehouse in Delhi, from which it distributes products across India.
Tech adoption
The brand has put in place an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and a systems, applications and products in data processing (SAP) system for ease of functioning. Other than this, the brand follows a customer loyalty programme where the customer can collect points and later, redeem them in the form of discounts on various products.
Marketing strategies
The brand relies on customer relationship management (CRM) as its major marketing strategy along with influencer marketing. Furthermore, it uses all mediums including newspapers, TV and digital platforms. Soon, the brand is also planning to get into radio advertising. Recently, the brand opted for Spotify as a medium to advertise the launch of its iced beverages.
“The focus is mostly on digital but local store marketing is also something we rely on,” Dalmia shared.
Expansion plans
By the end of the financial year 2023-24, the brand plans to expand to 160 stores with a focus on metro cities. “We feel that Mumbai and Bengaluru have a lot of potential and we haven’t milked it fully yet,” added Dalmia. The brand plans to continue expanding through food courts in malls and high streets as well.
Keventers dates back to 1889 when Edward Keventer first came to India and set up shop. Soon, he took over the Aligarh Dairy. Following this, he opened a dairy farm in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi. Over the years, the brand came to be known for milk, butter, cheese and other dairy products. The brand also supplied condensed and powdered milk to the army.
It spread across several parts of the country and had multiple distributors, one of whom was industrialist Ram Krishna Dalmia. After the founder passed away, Dalmia acquired the brand and expanded it.
However, things went south in the 1970s when the main plant in Chanakyapuri was shut down and turned into a diplomatic enclave. Dalmia lost interest in the brand and he shifted his focus to other businesses. However, the brand didn’t die altogether as some distributors continued to run a few outlets but without any formal recognition.
