Indian ice-cream maker Havmor Ice Cream Limited (HIL) has decided to sell its ice-cream business to Lotte Confectionery for Rs 1,020 crore marking the entry of Lotte into India’s growing ice-cream market.
Lotte Confectionery is a part of $80 billion South Korean conglomerate Lotte group.
The 73-year-old ice-cream company, Havmor will continue to run its restaurant business.
The acquisition also marks the entry of Lotte, the maker of Chocopie confectionery brand, into India’s growing ice-cream market.
Havmor is currently the fifth largest ice-cream player in the country and enjoys around 8% share in India’s Rs 4,000 crore organised ice-cream market.
Ankit Chona, managing director, Havmor Ice Cream said, “We were not actively looking at exiting the ice-cream business. However, we were happy to consider it (the sell-off) if somebody could do justice to Havmor brand and take it to the next level. And, that’s where Lotte came into the picture.”
“We believe Lotte shares our values and the conglomerate is willing to invest significant amount of money to take the brand to the next level. Havmor has potential to become much bigger brand than what it is today. The restaurant business will be run by me from the same office and we will be working with Lotte to help grow the ice-cream business. I am not going to walk out of the company any time soon,” he added.