Business

Unforgotten Brands – Kwality Icecream

In 1940, Pishori Lal Lamba settled in New Delhi after moving there from Lahore. He opened a hand-cranked ice cream shop at the Regal Building and named it Kwality. The unusual name wasn’t a spelling error, but a marketing ploy to get people’s attention. His main customers were American GIs who were barracked in the area and their Indian girlfriends.

The United States had forced India into World War II, and most of its citizens were ready to be sent to the China Burma India (CBI) Theatre, one of the most difficult settings for military engagements in history. The non-combatants in the armed forces were treated like nobility. They went to balls and pool parties, saw the latest Hollywood films at Regal, dined at the theatre’s restaurant, and stunned Lamba and his longtime business partner and, subsequently, brother-in-law Iqbal Ghai with their insatiable cravings for ice cream after late showings. They were tipped off by an American who came by in 1942 to help them stay open after the late show at Regal. As a result, their luck improved.

When GIs ordered ice cream, they often requested a whole block rather than a single serving. Then ice cream was sold in blocks and sliced into individual servings. They taught the locals how to prepare sandwiches with freshly made bread and introduced Ghai-Lamba (as they were commonly called until they separated in 1979) to the Sicilian Cassata and the all-American tutti-frutti, both of which are now offered at Kwality.

In reality, an American soldier named Irving Zimmerman was instrumental in the establishment of Kwality, the ice cream brand. After the war ended and he had become a well-known veteran in New York, Zimmerman recommended Lamba and Ghai to American ice cream manufacturers. He ushered Ghai-Lamba into the commercial ice cream industry, which eventually gave rise to Kwality’s massive operations.

By 1955, they had gone into full commercial operation, and facilities had been established in Calcutta, Delhi, and Bombay utilising machinery from Italy and the United Kingdom. Thanks to Remo Bertorelli of Italy (the ice cream capital of the world), the Kwality name has been associated with the production of milk-based ice cream for many years.

The popular Kwality and Gaylord restaurants were both owned and operated by the same families.

Hindustan Unilever acquired the Kwality ice cream and ice cream on stick trademarks in 1994. Through the Graviss organisation, the Lamba family maintains control of the brand in excess of 20 countries and 10,000+ places of sale. It has its headquarters in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and boasts a direct distribution network that includes more than 6,000 retail touchpoints throughout the UAE.

Conflict and lawsuits have been continuing between the families of Ghai and Lamba. The ice cream brand is now known as Kwality Walls.