Parlours are more revenue generating- Hokey Pokey

Drums Food is an upcoming new age FMCG start-up which was launched a few years back with its first brand, Hokey Pokey ice creams. The company is now all set to launch its 2nd brand in the dairy space, Epigamia, and has focused on healthy Greek Yogurt. Drums Food has recently been featured as part of the New FMCG Brigade, which is disrupting the traditional FMCG space in India.

You claim to serve ice cream manufactured from pure buffalo milk. Have you tied up with local players or are you getting it from retailers in the segment?

We source all the milk from dairies based out of Kolhapur. We work with the local distributors in Mumbai and they get it sourced from Kolhapur.

You have tied up with retailers like Godrej Nature’s Basket and Foodhall. How are the responses so far?

The parlours are more revenue generating if they have the right location, right people to work with and they are more exciting than these FMCG players with whom we have tied up.  But presently, we see the scale coming from FMCG players.

You have so far 20 parlours spanning multiple cities in mall as well as high streets. According to you, which location gets the better revenue?

For us, both malls and high street locations are equal contributors. We look at locations where we see opportunity coming in.

You have about 7 parlours under franchisee format. How difficult or easy it is to manage a franchisor-franchisee relation for you?

Franchisee is a very tough thing to do and that’s why I am very selective in choosing the right partner. We do not believe in giving franchisees to everyone because we believe in selling the same quality product and hence, we want to sign a franchisee with the one with whom we have a good relation or with someone we know in the business.

What is your expansion plan? Are you planning to enter global markets as well?

Our next plan is to enter the yogurt space by launching our brand ‘Epigamia’ and to focus on pan-India expansion rather than expanding our business to global diasporas. We want to grow in the cities where we are present; Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune and Chandigarh. And we are looking at strengthening our distribution channel by partnering with over 1,500 distributors in the country. 

Are you selling your product through e-commerce partnerships?

We are very active on e-commerce platforms as well, we have tied up with LocalBanya, BigBasket and we are one of the best ice cream brands. And I think the e-commerce customers are very niche customers and we are really finding e-commerce as a great channel for us.

Tell us about your brand Epigamia?

It is a Greek yougurt which is essentially high in protein and low in fat. Being an ice cream brand, we think we should launch something in healthy dairy segment and we planned to launch ‘Epigamia’. It is available in six flavours namely, Mango, Strawberry and plain yogurt. Keeping in mind the Indian customers, we have  also launched yogurt in Imli chatni and mitthi chaat flavours.

You recently raised Rs 5 crore funding. From where can we see the investment happening?

We would like to use the fund raising in future production capacity, launching our brand Epigamia and for more inventory systems in the brand.