India’s first and only dinosaur-themed ice cream brand Poodyno has launched two experiential retail outlets on National Highway 44 in Haryana within 30 days of each other, targeting a frozen dessert market valued at $4.86 billion in 2024 and projected to reach $9.25 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 11.32% (TechSci Research), a category that, despite its scale, has seen almost no investment in experiential retail formats.
What Poodyno Is and What Makes It Different
The brand is built around three retail pillars that operate in combination, a model that has no direct precedent in India’s organised ice cream sector.
The first is a proprietary dinosaur-shaped handcrafted waffle cone, a first-in-India SKU that functions as a point-of-sale differentiator before a single word of brand communication is delivered. Paired with six product categories — Dino Cones, Ice Creams, Cotton Candy Burritos, Waffle Cones, Shakes, and Coolers and unlimited toppings across all formats, the menu is designed for both trial conversion and repeat purchase, with rotating seasonal specials and limited-edition drops that create urgency and return-visit cycles.
The second is the immersive prehistoric retail environment; every full-format outlet is a designed, themed destination with purposeful spatial storytelling rather than a standard QSR counter configuration. The retail environment is not decorative. It is the mechanism through which Poodyno generates dwell time, average transaction uplift, and organic consumer content at zero acquisition cost.
The third is the live dinosaur ride experience at every full-format outlet, an in-store attraction that converts a dessert stop into a family destination, drives return visit frequency, and functions as a multi-demographic engagement engine across children, Gen Z, and millennial parents simultaneously.
“The Indian retail landscape has evolved significantly; consumers today are spending on experiences, not just products,” said Saurabh Mehdiratta, Founder & CEO, Poodyno. “But the frozen dessert category has remained frozen in its retail format. Every outlet looks the same. Every visit feels the same. Poodyno enters as a destination retail concept, the kind where the environment itself is a reason to visit, and the experience is the differentiator, not just the flavour.”
Children are the primary purchase-intent drivers. The dinosaur-shaped cone and live ride create an immediate, visceral demand that children communicate to parents before any adult has made a spending decision.
“Three consumer segments are walking in without being asked. Children are demanding it. Gen Z is documenting it. Parents are planning for it,” said Mehdiratta. “That trifecta, achieved without a rupee in paid marketing, is not a coincidence. It is what happens when the retail experience is designed with the same rigour as the product itself. We are not rolling out stores. We are rolling out a retail format, one that has been engineered to travel across geographies without losing what makes it work,” said Mehdiratta. “The franchise model is our distribution strategy for a consumer market that is already moving toward experiential retail. The question is simply how fast we can meet it,” he added.
