Venchi, the 147-year-old Italian chocolate and gelato maison, enters India with CocoCart, and sets out to build the country’s first national house of authentic Italian gelato

• The family led Italian brand, founded in 1878, opened its first Indian boutique at Navi Mumbai International Airport on 8 May 2026, with boutiques at Mumbai T2 next in the pipeline.
• From online chocolate retailer to franchise operator: CocoCart brings Venchi to India and bets on a chocolate, gelato and café format built for dwell time and basket size 

Premium gourmet retailer CocoCart has brought Venchi, the Italian chocolate and gelato maison founded in 1878, to India, opening the brand’s first Indian boutique at Navi Mumbai International Airport and setting in motion a plan to build something the Indian market has never had: a nationwide network of the branded luxury gelato house.

India’s frozen desserts market is estimated at roughly ₹25,500 crore, with the artisanal segment compounding at about 18.5 percent a year. Yet the category remains fragmented across standalone parlours, restaurant dessert menus and hotel patisseries, with no scale player in authentic Italian gelato.

“We are not competing for share inside the existing Indian ice cream market. We are building a new shelf next to it,” said Karan Ahuja, Co-Founder, CocoCart.

“There is no scale player in authentic Italian gelato in India today. The category exists in fragments, in standalone parlours, restaurant dessert menus and hotel patisseries, but nobody is building a nationwide, branded, luxury gelato house.”

A partnership built on proof, not a pitch

The Venchi franchise did not begin with a proposal. CocoCart, which started during the COVID lockdown selling imported chocolate online, had already been retailing Venchi in India for nearly two years before formal conversations began, and came to the table with two years of point-of-sale data on what sold, who bought it, and what they came back for.

The fit runs deeper than commerce. Venchi has been family led since 1878 and is today headed by Daniele Ferrero, who personally relaunched the brand in 1998 and has run it as its largest owner operator for 28 years. CocoCart is itself a family run business, and that shared owner operator DNA anchors the partnership.

Reinventing the format for India

Rather than run standalone gelato parlours, CocoCart is integrating chocolate, gelato and café into a single boutique format built for dwell time and basket size. Venchi’s clean label promise, no palm oil, no artificial flavours and gluten free recipes, with hazelnuts from Italy’s Langhe region, anchors a premium price point in a category that in India remains largely unorganised and unbranded.

The clean label story is finding an unusually literate audience. The affluent urban Indian consumer, typically between 28 and 45 and increasingly female led in the buying decision, already reads provenance labels on her olive oil, her wine and her dark chocolate, and is now reading them on her gelato.

The road ahead

Boutiques at Mumbai T2, across domestic and international departures, are next in the pipeline, with a phased expansion planned thereafter. India exclusive products are being co developed with Venchi from Year 1.

Venchi uses Rainforest Alliance certified cocoa and runs on 100 percent renewable electricity globally.

“Venchi takes CocoCart from a curator of global brands to an operator of them, in the one premium category where India has no scale incumbent today,” said Ahuja.

“That is not an expansion. It is a category we now own the path to building.”

“Venchi has been crafting Italian chocolate and gelato since 1878, and we look for partners who share that same commitment to craft. CocoCart came to us with proof, having already built genuine demand for Venchi in India over two years. India is a market where we believe authentic Italian chocolate and gelato will find a lasting home,” said Sara Schiavon, Head of Key Accounts, EMEA, Venchi.