Dinshaw’s Dairy Pvt Ltd, founded in 1932, is trying to look and think younger. The 94-year-old Nagpur-based ice cream maker is recasting its identity to appeal to a new generation of consumers, while making investments to expand its footprint beyond Maharashtra into markets across India, Zervin Rana, director at the company, told Mint in an interview.
The push comes months after a comprehensive rebranding exercise that refreshed the company’s logo and positioning. “We hadn’t really invested in the brand identity for a very long time. Our marketing spend until four to five years ago was practically zero,” Rana said.
While the business continued to grow on the back of trust in the legacy brand and distribution heft, Rana said the brand risked losing relevance among consumers. “We realized there is no relevance for them. A brand’s look, appeal, everything has to be for today’s age,” he noted.
This modernization comes at a cost. The firm logged operating revenue of ₹856.5 crore in FY24, up from ₹746 crore the previous year. Its loss for the year more than doubled to ₹53.1 crore, weighed down by higher expenses, according to filings with the ministry of corporate affairs, accessed by business intelligence platform Tofler.
Expanding beyond home
In addition to repositioning its brand, Dinshaw’s is widening its geographic reach. While Maharashtra remains its core market, the company has been scaling its presence in states such as Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, with plans to enter Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. “Maharashtra will provide a significant part of our ice cream revenues,” Rana said, while adding that growth in other states has been “significant” over the past few years.
However, the expansion strategy is calibrated rather than aggressive. Around 80% of growth is expected to come from strengthening market share in existing geographies, with 10-20% driven by expansion into new territories. This is because, while ice cream has emerged as a more scalable, national category due to higher value addition, fresh dairy remains deeply regional, shaped by supply chains and cost economics.
India’s India was valued at ₹31,200 crore in 2025 and is forecast to reach ₹1.2 trillion by 2034, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16%, according to market research firm iMARC Group. India’s overall dairy market was worth ₹21 trillion in 2025 and is projected to touch ₹58 trillion by 2034, iMARC estimated.
“Ice cream is a national play where you can build scale, but dairy is still largely regional and costly to expand,” said Ankur Bisen, senior partner at retail consultancy The Knowledge Company. Distribution for fresh dairy is currently limited to a 300-350 km radius from Nagpur due to perishability and logistical constraints. “Most of these players have a regional play, concentrated in certain pockets,” Bisen said, highlighting that even new-age dairy brands derive the bulk of revenues from their core geographies.
Dinshaw’s was established in 1932 by brothers Dinshaw and Erachshaw Rana. The Dinshaw family owns a 50% stake in the company and the remaining 50% is held by the Bapuna group, which came on board as an equal stakeholder in 2002.
Dairy products and snacks
To bypass geographical limits, the firm is looking at ways to grow its value-added dairy products business, which includes ghee, paneer and dahi, and snacks such as breads and toast.
“We are also going to enter the namkeens market to compete in the high-growth snacking segment,” Rana added. These adjacent categories offer longer shelf lives, allowing for easier geographic expansion compared to fresh milk. Ice cream continues to anchor the business, contributing roughly half of group revenues, while the rest comes from dairy, bakery and snacks.
According to the IMARC Group, India’s snacks market was valued at ₹42,695 crore in 2023 and is expected to more than double to ₹95,522 crore by 2032.
To win in new markets, Rana emphasised three levers: investment in cold-chain infrastructure such as freezers, region-specific marketing, and continuous product innovation. “If you have to make a dent in new geographies, you require product innovation and that is completely non-negotiable,” he said.
Legacy firms vs startups
As the company pivots, it enters a market where legacy alone is no longer enough. With venture-backed startups such as Akshayakalpa Organic and Sid’s Farm, entrenched cooperatives, and national brands all competing for market share, Dinshaw’s is betting on sharper branding, faster innovation, and wider distribution to stay relevant.
“There are a lot of smaller companies coming in and pushing players to innovate,” Bisen noted. “To measure the success of any brand, I would look at how much of the business is coming from non-core markets and whether they are able to preserve margins as they grow,” he added, highlighting the twin pressures of growth and profitability.
For a legacy brand such as Dinshaw’s, however, this moment presents both a challenge and an opportunity. Its long-standing brand equity offers trust that newer players lack, even as evolving consumer preferences level the playing field. “The good thing about Dinshaw is that they have a legacy. The brand comes with a lot of trust which a new brand will not have,” Bisen noted.