Cargills Magic Ice Cream Sells 1 Million Litres in 1 Month

14th October 2009, www.dailymirror.lk, By Cheranka Mendis

Cargills Magic, the well known ice cream manufacturer with over 40 flavors and blends of ice creams surpassed yet another milestone last month by recording staggering sales of over one million liters in the 30 day period.

While selling over 5 million liters within a time span of 5-6 months, Cargills aims at achieving 12 million liters by the end of the year.

“Cargills magic, since its inception in July 2002 has doubled local ice cream sales taking it from a 12 million liter per year market to a 25 million liter market,” Chief Executive Officer, Cargills Ceylon PLC Mr. Ranjit Page said. “We are proud of this achievement and the Company’s commitment to the nation, the community and the maintenance of a strong ethical stance in all its dealings”.

“We have increased the market from the day we started growing through innovation” Since its launch Cargills Ice Cream has grown to become the market leader in the Dairy Ice Cream Category. Accessible to all Sri Lankans through an extensive island wide distribution network which includes 33,000 retailers in all provinces and districts and 138 own food outlets, Cargills Magic is one of Sri Lankas biggest success stories. “We have almost 350 Mobile selling ice cream units, tricycles and ice cream parlor trucks islandwide which provides self employment to rural youth,” Mr. Page disclosed.

It was also stated that Cargills Magic recorded a double digit growth in the current financial year in terms of value in the 1st quarter and that no competitor can match them on their impulse range. “When we first started we were only aware of the flavors chocolate, vanilla and strawberry,” Mr. Page noted adding with the innovative touch that the company boasts about, Cargills have introduced over 44 variants to the local market excluding the seasonal flavors.

“From Fresh Fruit Ice Creams such as Strawberry, Mango, Woodapple and Avocado and mixed ice cream availabele in cups and tubs, we also introduce different tastes and blends created especaily during the festive season. This includes Kithul Magic, Faluda Magic, Christmas cake ice cream and even Kalu dodol ice cream,” Head of Ice Cream unit, Nimal Pathirana said.

Building on an ice cream recipe which is purely fresh milk based and completely free of any vegetable fat, the company makes a major contribution to local smallholder dairy farmers as well. The Cargills network of dairy farmers is now over 5,000 strong and enjoys prices that far surpass market rates. “Our daily collection on an average is about 16,000-20,000 liters,” – National Sales Manager, Cargills Magic Buddhisha Herath added. “We guarantee the best quality and even though manufacturing ice cream with

milk powder is far cheaper and easier we are determined to contribute to the development of the diary industry of Sri Lankan while considering the best option in both health and taste to the consumers.”

The Company provides technical inputs to enhance the quality of milk and the overall productivity of the farms, while assisting the farmers in obtaining low interest credit, and providing the farmers subsidized balanced feed, veterinary drugs, mineral mixtures and high quality, sterile milk containers, Cargills is determined to explore the industry and give the suppliers maximum benefit they could get.

“1000’s of farms islandwide act as suppliers and enjoy numerous benefits and while local and international consumers consume the products the benefits go to the local farmers,” Mr. Page asserted.

It was also said that Cargills does not import any milk or any raw material except stabilizers which cannot be made in Sri Lanka.

Now aiming beyond the demarcation of Sri Lanka, Cargills have started exporting their products to countries such as Maldives. “It is currently still very small, but we will expand the market very shortly,” assured Mr. Page, “all this time we concentrated on the Sri Lankan market but now we have achieved that and are ready to touch the others as well,”. On the North and East market, Mr. Page stated that the new opportunities lie not only with the consumers but also with new suppliers. “We will never run short of milk.” He also stated that over Rs.600 million have been used for investment to date and that he hopes to increase the investment in the near future.

Always having been a strong believer in sustainable brand value which positively impacts the community and the consumer, the entire production process takes place in Sri Lanka and is a wholly owned operation. The Cargills factory is the largest ice cream factory in Sri Lanka that has food safety and food hygiene systems built into its infrastructure, ensuring a 100% quality product with great value for money.

The only dairy company in Sri Lanka to hold the ISO 9001: 2000 (Quality Management System), ISO 14001: 2004 (Environmental Management System) and ISO 22000: 2005 (Food Safety Management System), certified by SGS Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, accredited by UKAS (Unite Kingdom Accreditation System), Cargills Magic was

said to be not just the leader in variety and affordability, it is also the healthiest and most nutritious option in the market.