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Lotte Confectionery is investing KRW70 billion, or about $56.6 million, to build a new manufacturing facility in India. This will be the South Korean food tech company’s third factory in this country, and the aim is to further expand its ice cream unit in the Indian market through its local affiliate Havmor Ice Cream.
Lotte Confectionery announced on Wednesday, Jan. 18, that it would put in new investment in Havmor Ice Cream over the next five years to further boost and support its rapidly growing confectionery business in India.
As per Yonhap News Agency, Lotte Confectionery is planning to construct a new factory that will measure 60,000 square meters. This will be a dedicated plant for the production of ice cream and will be built in Pune, an industrial city located in the western state of Maharashtra.
The new building will be Havmor Ice Cream’s first manufacturing facility in India since the brand was acquired by Lotte Confectionery in 2017 for KRW167.2 billion. Currently, the ice cream brand operates 216 stores in the country, and it has been distributing two brands of frozen desserts made by its Korean parent company, which are the World Cone and Snow Ice.
The company said that the demand for ice cream has increased in India thus, there is a need for a new plant to bolster production and meet the demand. Once in full operation, the new facility is expected to create at least 1,000 jobs for the locals. The Korea Economic Daily reported that Lotte Confectionery is looking to start operations in the Pune plant by the fourth quarter of 2024.
"India is Lotte's strategic market, with headroom to grow further is large given that the per-capita consumption of ice creams is low compared with other Asian countries," Komal Anand, Havmor Ice Cream’s managing director, stated. "By establishing a new plant, and increasing our presence and availability in these 20 states, we will strengthen our position in the Indian ice cream market and become a market leader."
