Rags to riches stories are the most inspirational and moving tales that enforce our belief in the power of deduction and persistence.
One such motivational success story is of Raghunandan Srinivas Kamath, the owner of the popular Naturals Ice Cream. He started a multi-crore business by battling all odds.
His father was a small fruit vendor in Karnataka. He routinely helped his father to sell in a small village in Mangalore. He then learnt the skill of picking ripe fruit, plucking it, sorting it, and preserving it.
However, he couldn’t finish his studies and failed school, and eventually dropped out. He then left his father’s business and moved to Mumbai from Mangalore at 14. He started working at his brother’s South Indian restaurant and used to earn a meagre salary.
He then got motivated to start something of his own. So he founded Natural Ice Cream on February 14, 1984, with only four workers and 10 ice cream flavours.
He only used fruit, milk, and sugar to make ice cream. So, to attract new customers, Kamath started selling Pav Bhaji as the main dish and ice cream as a side item. The store began with 12 flavours and due to its delicious taste, it became a famous ice cream parlour.
From his modest and small shop in Juhu, Kamath made Rs 5,00,000 in revenue in its first year. Later, he stopped selling pav bhaji to establish a proper ice cream company.
Thereafter, the business expanded and currently, he has shops in 135 locations across the country. These shopes sell ice cream in 20 flavours.
As per reports, Naturals Ice Cream's retail revenue is around Rs 400 crore, in FY 2020. It was also listed in India's top 10 companies for best customer experience in the KPMG survey. He is also regarded as the 'Ice cream man of India'.
