Vadilal, an ice cream that had humble beginnings in Gujarat is now a well-known brand all across the country.
The company would make ice creams using the traditional Kothi method, in which a hand-operated machine was used to churn milk, ice and salt.
Today, they offer their customers over 200 different flavours of ice cream.
The brand began its operations in 1907, when Vadilal Gandhi, a resident of Ahmedabad, started selling soda.
Gradually he added ice cream to the list, and his son, Ranchod Lal Gandhi, inherited the business.
Under Ranchod Lal Gandhi’s leadership, Vadilal started to focus more on ice creams, opening its first ice cream outlet in 1926.
In the same year, for the very first time, an ice cream-making machine was imported from Germany. And by the time of India’s independence, it opened four outlets across the city.
One of the brand’s USPs was that all their ice creams were 100% vegetarian and were advertised as being fit for consumption even during religious fasting periods.
By the 1990s, the fourth generation of the Gandhi family had joined the business, and the company was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
In 1995, Vadilal became the first Indian brand to bring frozen vegetables to the US market.
Each of their facilities has a green cover of almost 60%, and all the wastewater is sent to a treatment plant.
Vadilal was the first brand to launch ice cream dollies, cones and sundaes in India and was also the first here to establish a fully automated candy manufacturing line.
In November 2001, Vadilal broke its record and was featured in the Limca Book of Records by making ‘The Largest Ice Cream Sundae’.
It was made using 4,950 litres of ice cream, 125 kg of dry fruits, 255 kg of fresh fruits and 390 litres of various kinds of sauces, and was put together by 180 people in a record 60 minutes.
“Today, Vadilal is the largest-selling Indian ice cream brand in the US, and our brand has reached 45 countries of the world,” says Kalpit Gandhi, a fifth-generation entrepreneur of the family.