The latest food and beverage industry news and trend analysis

The Magnum Ice Cream Company has announced the opening of its new Research, Design and Innovation (RD&I) Centre in Bengaluru, India. Located in the technology hub of Whitefield, the 13,000-square-foot facility is designed to serve as a hub for ice cream science, packaging development, and consumer technical insights.

The launch aims to support and accelerate product and packaging development across several of the company's brands, including Kwality Wall’s, Cornetto, Magnum, Carte D’Or, Feast, and Twister.

Technical Capabilities and Local Infrastructure

The newly established facility houses a state-of-the-art laboratory and a digitally enabled pilot plant, allowing for rapid product experimentation. It is equipped to handle the development and testing of multiple product formats, including:

• Cups and tubs

• Sticks and bars

• Cones

• Kulfi

• Premium ice cream cakes

To ensure that newly developed products can withstand the demanding logistics of the Indian market, the centre features specialised equipment for cold-chain and climate testing, 3D packaging prototyping, and transport simulations. These systems allow technical teams to validate product stability under diverse environmental and transport conditions before commercial scale-up.

By basing the centre in Bengaluru, the company aims to leverage the city's established food science infrastructure, raw material suppliers, and agricultural technology start-up network.

Collaborative Global Research Network

The Bengaluru RD&I Centre will not operate in isolation. The facility is structured to collaborate closely with the company’s Global Design Centre in Colworth, UK, and its Regional Innovation Hub in Istanbul, Turkey.

This collaborative model is designed to combine global technical expertise with deep local market insights, allowing the company to adapt international dairy platforms to suit local consumer tastes and cultural occasions.

The investment in the Bengaluru facility comes as the Indian ice cream market experiences steady growth, characterised by evolving consumer expectations, demand for premiumisation, and a rising interest in diverse flavour profiles.

Kwality Wall’s has operated in the Indian market for over seven decades. The integration of this local brand heritage with the technical resources of the parent company is expected to improve speed-to-market for seasonal product launches and enhance overall formulation quality.

Chitrank Goel, Deputy Managing Director of Kwality Wall’s (India) Limited, stated that the new centre provides the business with the necessary technical tools to respond to changing consumer preferences while continuing to build a resilient, future-ready ice cream operations network in the region.