Easy
Growth Strategy
Lactose King
Practice this beginner-friendly growth strategy case interview question. Includes detailed problem prompt, clarifying questions, structured framework, and expert recommendation. Part of ProHub's 835+ consulting case library.
ProHub Comment
This case presents a well-structured growth challenge with a clear quantitative answer path. The case guides candidates through market segmentation analysis, customer preference mapping, and financial modeling—requiring candidates to synthesize multiple data exhibits into a coherent recommendation. The scaffolded approach (Exhibit #1 → #2 → #3) helps candidates develop analytical frameworks while testing their ability to synthesize insights across different data types.
Estimated Time
16 minutes
Difficulty
Easy
Source
Duke
10
/ 100
Our client is Lactose King, a premium ice cream restaurant chain with approximately 3,000 locations throughout the United States. While they’ve enjoyed consistent profitability and are an industry leader in direct-to-consumer ice cream sales, their revenue has been stagnant over the past few years.
What can they do to improve their gross revenue?
Clarifying Information
- Lactose King operates under a simple business model of owning and operating all of their own stores, procuring ingredients from various suppliers throughout the country, and processing/serving the ice cream at individual locations.
- They serve only soft-serve ice cream and related products (milkshakes, ice cream sandwiches, etc.)
- Revenue last year was at $250K/store [$750M], and they would like to improve gross revenue by 33% in 1 year [$1B target].
- The candidate’s framework should consider: improving ice cream sales (marketing campaign, expanding outside of the United States), offering a new product (desert or non-desert), utilizing a new sales channel (selling to grocery stores), consumer preferences, etc.