• By Vaamanaa Sethi
  • Mon, 26 Jun 2023 02:49 PM (IST)
  • Source:JND
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When it comes to ice cream, the first brand which appears as our first choice is Vadilal. It has now become a household brand and one of the biggest ice cream selling companies in India.

In 1907, Vadilal Gandhi, from Ahmedabad opened a small soda shop in the pre-independence times. Gandhi belonged to a middle class family and was unaware how the small soda shop gained a lot of popularity.

After his soda shop grew exponentially in Gujarat, he soon combined ice cream with soda, and began selling ice cream soda pops across the state. It was under Ranchod Lal Gandhi’s leadership, who was the son of Vadilal Gandhi and inheritor of Vadilal ice cream brand, that the brand started focusing on ice creams.

Vadilal eventually opened its first ice cream outlet in the country in 1926. Gandhi used to make ice cream by the traditional Kothi method, using a hand-operated machine to churn milk with other ingredients, ice and salt. Back then, when it was a life without Zomato and Swiggy, the brand used to provide home deliveries too with ice creams packed in thermocol boxes.

From a small outlet, Vadilal had expanded to four ice-cream shops before independence and became popular for its flagship cassata ice cream, which was introduced in the 1950s.

The brand now offers more than 200 different flavours of ice cream manufactured at their units. From a small soda shop to becoming an established ice cream seller, the brand has a market cap of Rs 1933 crore, as per media reports. 

The major reason behind the massive popularity of Vadilal ice cream in India was that it claims to be 100 percent vegetarian and fit for consumption even on fasting days.

The brand has now expanded into processed food, selling pre-cooked curries, bread, and other vegetarian items as well. Kalpit Gandhi, who is the fifth generation businessman from the Vadilal family, is currently Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the ice cream and processed food company.

Vadilal has also now emerged to be one of the largest-selling Indian ice cream brands in the United States as well.