Lotte Wellfood opens Pune ice-cream plant and outlines India investment

New ice-cream capacity in Pune

Lotte Wellfood has inaugurated an ice-cream manufacturing facility in Pune, Maharashtra, with annual production capacity of 50 million litres. The South Korean company has invested ₹500 crore in the plant, expanding the production base of its Havmor ice-cream business.

Chief executive Paul Yi plans approximately $300 million of further investment in Indian capacity and supply chains over the next three to five years. That programme concerns wider expansion, alongside the investment already made in the Pune facility.

The Pune plant could eventually expand to 100 million litres of annual capacity. Domestic consumers are the initial priority, while future export plans include the Middle East and potentially Africa. Yi also identified Bengaluru and Chennai as locations for further expansion.

Integration of the Indian businesses

Lotte Wellfood announced plans to combine Lotte India and Havmor Ice Cream in August 2024. The boards of both subsidiaries had approved the merger plan on July 29. The proposed integrated entity, One India, would bring the confectionery and ice-cream operations into a common corporate structure.

Under the plan, Havmor would integrate with Lotte India while both brands retained their individual identities. The company set a target of ₹6,000 crore in annual sales over six years from completion of the amalgamation. This was a future sales objective, rather than revenue already achieved when the merger was announced.

The expansion strategy includes:

• Extending regional coverage from western India toward south-central markets.
• Strengthening the Lotte brand through continued investment in the Indian business.
• Developing localised Pepero products reflecting eating habits and climatic conditions, following the introduction of Lotte Choco Pie.

Havmor within the Lotte food business

Lotte Confectionery announced its purchase of Havmor Ice Cream on November 23, 2017. The transaction covered the company's entire one million shares. The announced purchase price was 164.5 billion won, reported at the time as approximately US$151 million, as Lotte expanded its presence in India's snack market.

The Havmor acquisition followed Lotte Confectionery's entry into India in 2004. Its Indian business generated nearly 70 billion won of revenue in 2016. Those historical figures describe the earlier market presence and acquisition, separate from the Pune plant's investment and the subsequent Indian expansion programme.