Wall's and Nestle fight for top spot in ice cream: Nestle is no longer letting Wall's steal the thunder in ice cream, with Skinny Cow getting the lion's share of a bigger spend

Grocer, March 17, 2007 by Kay Staniland

Nestle has dramatically stepped up its activity in ice cream cabinets this year, pulling ahead of Wall's, which last year was the busiest player.

It's obviously early days for ice cream, but Nestle's activity this year so far is sharply up--and its main focus is Skinny Cow ice lollies and ice cream, which have received 70% of the activity since the start of the year.

Last year, Nestle came third place for activity, with 17%, behind Wall's in the lead at 43%, Mars at 19% and Cadbury at 14%. Del Monte accounted for 4% and Ben & Jerry's 3%.

This year to date, however, Nestle leads with 30%, with Wall's at 26%, Mars at 18%, Cadbury at 17%, Del Monte at 4%, Ben a Jerry's at 3% and Haagen-Dazs at 1%. Nestle has been using 'save' on 85% of offers and bogof on the rest.

Wall's was, in fact, in the lead for activity last weekend, topping the list with 35%, but Nestle was hard on its heels with 29%. Ben & Jerry's was making more of an effort, leaping to 18%, while Cadbury was fairly level with 12% and Haagen-Dazs rose to 6%.

Last weekend, ice cream offers accounted for 31% of total frozen promotional featured space activity.

Wall's Carte d'Or was on offer in Asda with 'save', and on bogof in Somerfield, while Magnum bogofs were in Tesco and Solero was on 'save' in Asda.

So far this year Wall's has been using featured space to push sales of Carte d'Or, Cornetto, Magnum, Solero and Cream of Cornish 2-litre tubs. Save has been used on 44%, bogof for 39% and x-for-y on 17%.

Nestle Fruit Crunch ice cream bars 4-pk in peach and raspberry were on bogof in Sainsbury and 'save' in Asda. Nestle Quality Street lollies and ice creams were on bogof in Sainsbury.

Ben & Jerry's promoted 500ml tubs with 'save' in Asda and x-for-y in Sainsbury's. Cadbury had bogofs on Creme Egg and triple chocolate ice cream 3-packs in Tesco. Haagen-Dazs was on 'save' in Asda.