How to get a franchisee of Baskin-Robins:

Baskin-Robbins started in India back in 1993 when they opened their first
store in Mumbai. Today they are spread across the country with 421 outlets
in 95 cities besides catering to other premium channels like star hotels,
leading airlines, malls, multiplexes and top retail chains across India. It is
therefore, present in India at 1800 touch points in all.

Potential Franchisee:

A person with commitment to work for brand

Should be financially sound and willing to dedicate quality time to
brand

A food industry background will be an added advantage

People with available real estate at prime location will get preference

Assistance to Franchisee:

Training programs for franchisee

Site selection assistance
Design & construction support
Marketing & advertisement support

Advantages to Franchisee:

Leading brand name

Tried and tested system to accelerate the financial success
Proven business operation system

Difference between competitors:

Area
Required
cost of
opening
Return on
investment?

BaskinRobbins
400

Amul
Scoopies
300

Rs. 10lac -
Rs. 20lac
30 - 40 %

Giani

250

15-20
Lakhs

30

30

Baskin-Robins Future Plans:

In 2010, Baskin-Robins announced that it wants to penetrate deeper and
denser. It targeted to grow 30 per cent in 2010. While it wants to expand the

number of outlets in cities it is already present, covering pockets where it is

not there, the chain is also planning an aggressive roll out in a large number
of Tier II and III cities. Says Baskin-Robbins India Chief Operating Officer
Subroto Mukherjee, In cities we are already there, we want to cover the
entire geographical spread. For instance, in Mumbai, we have 92 outlets, but
there are pockets where we are not there. In and around Delhi, we have 45
outlets, but I see potential for at least 200 outlets. The chain is looking at
activating 80 to 85 ice cream parlours every year.

As for Tier II and III cities, Mukherjee says, They are yielding excellent
results. Weve seen some startling trends; for instance, parlours in cities like
Nagpur and Guwahati have been our top grosser. These cities have got a lot
of money with not many places to spend. They are certainly a key growth
driver. While well enter newer markets in Tier II and III cities, well also
explore opportunities in Tier IV cities.

Baskin-Robbins is perceived as a premium brand a regular scoop costs Rs

45, while a premium one costs Rs 50. It is thus positioned between the mass
brands such as Amul, Kwality Walls and Vadilal and the super-premium
brands like Hagen-Dazs and Movenpik. It thus faces some competition from
both the categories as well as other dessert brands like Caf Coffee Day and
Barista. Mukherjee says the positioning has actually benefited the brand.
We are a very affordable brand and with brands like Movenpik, which cost
Rs 150-plus a scoop, coming up, it has made life easier for us. BaskinRobbins is perceived as excellent quality at a lesser price. He adds, We are
slightly more expensive than our nearest competitor; however, we are
confident that the value the customer gets out of a superior product along
with our healthy portion sizes makes it great value. Today, hygiene and
quality are critical to the customer and that is where Baskin-Robbins scores
over others.

BASKIN-ROBBINS COLD SUPPLY CHAIN

Baskin Robbins, which started in India in 1993, is a global chain of ice-cream
parlors with around 425 stores in 95 cities across India. Baskin Robbins has
the manufacturing plant in
Pune that supplies ice creams to the entire South Asia. The vital components
are imported to the Pune plant.
To a business of ice creams such as Baskin Robbins, cold chain logistics is
central and very critical. BR has tried their in-house logistics but failed due to
lack of competence. Hence, the whole logistics and the cold supply chain

management in outsourced to a third party cold chain logistics service

provider Snowman Logistics that is the biggest and the only pan-India cold
chain logistics service provider. Fig 2 represents the cold chain for BaskinRobbins across India.
Baskin Robbins leveraged on snowmans 18 ware houses that provide -25 C
temperature across India. Besides providing the refrigerated warehouse
facilities, Snowman also provides refrigerated transportation on Pan India
basis from its Pune manufacturing plant using their dedicated Reefer trucks.
During the setup of the different franchises across the country,
Baskin Robbins had certain challenges. Though it tried its hand by looking
after the logistics by itself using in-house competencies, it failed majorly as
cold chain logistics are not its core competency. Realizing this fact, Baskin
Robbins outsourced the entire cold chain logistics services to third parties
like Snowman.

ISSUES & CHALLENGES: A COMPATRITIVE STUDY

For the cold storages at Guntur the following are the major challenges:

The cooling systems consume high amount of electricity and results in

25% of the maintenance charges. Though there are many measures
taken right from the construction of the cold storage to insulate the
walls of the building properly and ensure high quality for thermal
insulation using materials such as thermo-cool sheets, etc.; due to nonuniform demand, the cooling systems have to run when the chambers
are under capacity. As there is a high variation in the demand, during
the off-season, the cold storage chambers are not completely
occupied, i.e., the whole storage space is not utilized but the cooling
systems are operational to maintain the temperature for the minimum
stock that is there.

This part of the cold supply chain is highly labour intensive and labour
dependent and almost 20% of the annual expenses are labour
expenses. Besides, the whole process of taking in and out of the chilly
bags is done manually. Since the labour is employed on the contract
basis, if there is no labour any given time, the whole process is halted
and is waiting for the availability of the labour. These kinds of
situations lose the good will of the cold storage and the farmers tend to
go only to those cold storages where there is availability of labour as
they do not want to take chance on deteriorating the quality of chilies.
And the labour generally finds employment with those cold storages
where the wages are high.

Major challenges faced by Baskin-robins during expansion in Shillong is:

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
Variability of demand for ice-creams according to the seasons

Table 1 shows a comparative difference between the two cold chains studied.
Here, it is seen that although both the products were part of the same
segment, the locational difference on the product characteristics difference
made it mandatory to possess different strategies for products in the same
sector. The challenges faced by them are different and so should be the way
to tackle them.