Basking in glory

as the company heads for a major overhaul, the 32-year-old ceo of baskin robbins is clearly at the helm with clear-cut strategies ready to be implemented and a brand new team of young professionals. pankaj has a long-standing association with the hospitality industry. after obtaining a diploma in food and beverages, he was involved in the launching of restaurants including the terrace garden at poonam chambers, worli and venue restaurant at santacruz before moving on to dominos pizza where he ended his tenure six months ago as gm, western region.with the benefit of experience, it was relatively easy to discern the areas which needed to be addressed at baskin robbins, the only international brand of ice- creams to follow the parlour concept, which offers the consumers a different flavour for each day of the month from its pool of 600 flavours. baskin robbins entered the indian market 8 years ago and though it has 150 outlets across the country, the company had not focused on brand promotion. says pankaj, we are not just limited to ice-creams, in fact, we have three sections which people are unaware of -- the drink section which comprises of cool blends like milk shakes and cola-based floats; the ice-cream section where we introduce a new flavour every month and the third section of ice-cream-based cakes which has largely been ignored. expounding on the new measures which included the closure of certain non-profit outlets and the decision to concentrate on franchises, pankaj says, we are looking for franchises across the country in potential market areas and they stand to gain a lot from us.we will be refurbishing all our outlets by providing outputs in training and marketing operations. simply put, we will be supporting the franchiser by providing a complete and successful business model. he vehemently disagrees that the prevailing impression of baskin robbins being an expensive, premium segment ice-cream goes against it. for the past eight years we have not increased our rates. as a matter of fact, we've reduced the rates from rs 30 to rs 27 for a scoop. other parlour-based ice-creams sell at rs 24 per scoop. but in return, we give true vfm to our consumers. our product contains only cow cream and all our ingredients to meet the technical requirements like cocoa powder, stabilisers, essence and chocolates are imported. shortly, we will be launching a whole range of exclusive, international flavours. ours is a very affordable product even for the middle class. in the organised sector of 600 crores, the ice-cream industry has a 15-20 per cent growth every year which we at baskin robbins look for. almost 20-25 per cent of the organised sect- or comprises of institutions like hotels, clubs, airlines and railways and we now would like to consolidate the institutional market,says pankaj. given the congenial atmosphere at his work place which comprises of youngsters , most in their twenties, what are his management policies? we've picked vibrant people who are right for their jobs. i give them complete freedom so long as they deliver. smart work, integrity and a positive attitude is what i expect from my team. other than work, pankaj is passionate about singing. twice a week, he attends classes to learn light classical music and has featured in musical programmes on television. he confesses that had he not been here, he would have been a professional singer. music, he says, is a great stress buster for me as is spending time with my family and friends. but right now, he is determined to see his vision through of establishing 200 successful baskin robbins outlets by march 2003.