Naturals Ice Cream founder Raghunandan Kamath died in Mumbai on Friday night following hospitalisation due to a "brief illness", the company. He was 70.
"Our thoughts on the sad demise of our patron and founder of Naturals Ice Cream, Late (Shri) Raghunandan Kamath. Indeed a very sad and unfortunate day for us," read a post by the company on X.
In the obituary note uploaded along with the post, the company wrote, "A smile that will never be forgotten. A smile that will keep inspiring us that his era will never end. to the Ice Cream Man of India, who will forever stay in our hearts and yours."
His final rites were performed in Andheri West on Saturday evening. He is survived by his wife and two sons. One of the sons, Siddhant Kamath, is the director of the company.
Who was Raghunandan Kamath?
Raghunandan Srinivas Kamath, who hailed from Mulki town of Karnataka's Mangaluru, helped his father in the fruit business during his childhood. He moved to Mumbai when he was 14 and started working at his brother's eatery, where they sold homemade ice cream.
He kicked of his Juhu-based ice cream business in February 1984 in a bid to create ice cream filled with fruit pulp. Initially, the company offered 12 flavours and to woo more customers he started selling pav bhaji along with the ice cream. In 10 years, five more outlets were opened and now the Rs 400 crore company has 165 outlets across 15 cities.