Lovello Ice Cream had the most surprising news yesterday, ahead of its stock market debut on Wednesday.
The popular ice cream maker saw its profit leap 3.15 times between October and December last year, which is the off-season for sales of the soft, sweet frozen treat.
What is more impressive is that the Lovello posted the number amid the pandemic, when the majority of the ice cream sellers are having a terrible time because of an unfounded rumour.
Around March last year, when the ice cream industry enters its peak sales season centring on Pahela Boishakh, a rumour was spread on social media quoting the United Nations Children's Fund that ice cream consumption would lead to catching coronavirus.
Though the UN agency denied it, the damage was already done, with people avoiding ice cream like plague.
For instance, Golden Harvest, the maker of the BLOOP-brand of ice cream along with other frozen food items, posted a loss during the quarter. Ice cream accounted for about 40 per cent of Golden Harvest’s earnings.
Educational institutions account for a big portion of ice cream sales and those have been shut since March 17 last year.
Lovello logged in a profit of Tk 0.7 crore in the second quarter of its 2020-21 financial year -- which runs from July to June -- up from Tk 0.2 crore a year earlier.
“Our big market is outside of Dhaka and Covid-19 has not much of an influence there,” Zakaria Hossain, company secretary of Taufika Foods and Agro Industries, the parent company of Lovello Ice Cream, told Dhaka Tribune.
As a result, sales remained buoyant. But, its profit in the first half of the 2020-21 financial year dropped 14.6 per cent to Tk 2.7 crore.
Lovello expecting a turnaround from March, which is when ice cream sales typically start to crest.
The peak season for the industry ranges from March to September, during which about 75 per cent of the annual sales take place.
“People are coming out of their homes now and the vaccination has started. If everything remains stable, we are expecting a 15 per cent growth this year,” he added.
