Thailand's manufacturing network is the weapon: what Scoop Wonder's second Delhi store teaches about low-price ice cream strategy

Thai food and beverage major Minor Food opened the second Indian location of its ice cream concept "Scoop Wonder" at Unity One Elegante Mall (Netaji Subhash Place, or NSP) in Delhi on June 29, 2026. Following its first store in Gurugram, the signature item is the "Wonder Cup," which lets customers pile on three or five flavors for the price of one. A company whose portfolio includes Swensen's and Dairy Queen has deliberately entered India with "cheap and plentiful," backed by its own dairy and ice cream manufacturing network in its home country of Thailand. For Japanese food companies with their own manufacturing base, this way of entering the market is a topic that can be applied directly.

What happened at the second Delhi store?

The location, NSP, is a commercial and office cluster in northwest Delhi, and being inside a mall means it can expect traffic from families and younger crowds. Operations are led by Devinder Verma, Minor Food's India country director, who commented that "India is ready to embrace a new ice cream experience that combines innovation, quality, affordability, and fun." With a good response from the first Gurugram store, this second location is a move to solidify the National Capital Region (NCR) as one area first.

Scoop Wonder's core lies in its pricing design. While claiming premium quality, it offers multiple flavors for the price of one. Rather than selling ice cream by "how much per scoop," it is structured to sell "how much per experience," capturing both flavor-sampling purchases and repeat visits at the same time.

Why does the manufacturing network work?

Minor Food is one of the largest food and beverage chains in the Asia-Pacific region, operating more than 2,400 stores across 23 countries. Its strength lies not in the number of brands but in what's behind them. The company has dairy and ice cream manufacturing operations in Thailand, supplying ingredients and products to its own brands such as Swensen's and Dairy Queen. In other words, Scoop Wonder can be read not as a new business started from scratch by building a factory, but as one more outlet added to already-existing manufacturing capacity.

This structure underpins the pricing strategy. When a company controls its own ingredients and manufacturing, it can absorb the cost impact of offering multiple flavors for the price of one more easily than a player that relies on outside procurement. "Cheap and plentiful" is a pricing approach that only a company with its own manufacturing can pull off, one that is hard for a lean startup to imitate. This is where the differentiation lies in the Indian market.

The temperature of the Indian market

India's ice cream market, driven by heat waves, urbanization, and rising incomes, is projected in several market studies to grow at around 15% a year (estimates vary by research firm). The retail side is also moving. Quick commerce players like Blinkit and Zepto have grown into major ice cream channels, with demand spiking during heat waves thanks to delivery in minutes. In the affordable price segment, local brands such as Amul, Mother Dairy, and Havmor are well established, and Scoop Wonder's position is to layer on top of that an experiential value of "multiple flavors for the price of one."

How locals and the industry see it

Among restaurant industry insiders, Scoop Wonder's "multiple flavors for the price of one" is seen as a counter-move against the single-item, high-price-point premium approach. One industry source sees India's middle class as aspiring to premium while remaining cautious with its wallet, and views this "attainable premium" design as likely to resonate. Another restaurant operator, while praising the caution of watching the response in Gurugram before opening a second store, points out that if a later entrant without control over flavor cost tries to copy the same pricing, profitability would collapse. On social media too, there are comments suggesting that the experience of "trying every flavor without hesitation" is itself likely to become a talking point.

Implications for Japanese companies with manufacturing

There is one practical takeaway here: if your company has manufacturing capability, build it into your design as a weapon for price differentiation in the Indian market. Minor Food didn't let "having a factory in Thailand" end as a mere cost advantage — it converted it into the customer experience of "multiple flavors for the price of one." When Japanese food makers consider India, they tend to brace themselves at the thought of "we can't win" against local price competition, but if you have your own manufacturing, you hold design room for a way of selling — bundling, tasting flights, assortments — that only becomes viable once you can absorb the cost.

As a sequence, first take stock of the items your existing manufacturing lines can offer for India, and then decide on one pricing or plating approach that only makes sense because you have manufacturing. Whether to build a factory in India can be the next decision after that. As Minor Food did, using an existing manufacturing network as an outlet first and watching the response in one city before expanding is the realistic path for Japanese companies wanting to keep initial investment down.

Ripple effects on the market and competition

If Scoop Wonder secures an area presence in the capital region, single-item high-price-point premium ice cream and, conversely, ultra-low-price local brands will get squeezed by the "attainable premium" in the middle. When a foreign player with manufacturing comes down on price, later-entrant brands relying on outside ingredient sourcing find it hard to follow on price, and get pushed toward differentiating on experience — flavor count and plating. For Japanese dairy and frozen-dessert makers looking at India, the question becomes how to translate their manufacturing advantage into experience, on the premise that "whoever controls manufacturing plays the pricing card."

Related developments

Entry into India centered on manufacturing base and localization continues in other industries too. In beverages, Asahi's choice not to build its own factory when bringing Calpis into India offers a useful reference for thinking about the distance between manufacturing and store openings (Calpis lands in India: why Asahi did not build its own plant). On the ice cream retail side itself, there have been cases where heat waves and quick commerce pushed up demand in a short time (Ice cream sales double in 10 days amid India's heat wave, as quick commerce reshapes the marketplace). The trend of value-priced dining chains expanding nationwide locally is also a reference point for using price as a weapon (Gujarat's QSR "Ajay's" grows from 165 stores to a national chain).

Summary and next steps

Scoop Wonder's second Delhi store is not a flashy new product but a demonstration of a design in which "a company with Thailand's manufacturing network converts that capability into a price experience and enters India." The next move available to Japanese food companies with manufacturing is concrete: (1) take stock of the items your own manufacturing lines can offer for India, (2) decide on one pricing or plating approach that only makes sense because you control manufacturing, and (3) test the response in one city first, and if it's good, expand to adjacent cities as an area. The decision on whether to build a factory in India can wait until after seeing that response.

Sources

• NewsX — Minor Food Strengthens Its Presence in India with Scoop Wonder's First Store in New Delhi
• Restaurant India — Minor Food India Opens First Scoop Wonder Store in Delhi