Rain cloud with a silver lining: handheld ice creams took a bath this summer. Thank goodness the market had its tubs

Grocer, Dec 15, 2007

The picture of a Unilever ice cream storage facility submerged in water has to be one of the abiding memories of the wettest summer on record. As the River Avon burst its banks, Unilever's nearby Gloucester manufacturing plant also suspended production for two-and-a-half weeks due to the quality of the water supply--just in time for a brief hot spell.

"My heart bleeds for the ice cream suppliers," says Dave Lunn, ice cream buyer at Nisa-Today.

"We had a storming start in April, but the NPD was wasted, really, by the atrocious weather."

The market was down by nearly 5% to 794m [pounds sterling], with handheld ice creams and lollies falling by 9.3%. In the so-called 'out-of-home' category (ie convenience stores and CTNs etc), it was even worse: Unilever measured the fall at 13%, with the range and scope of ice cream sales in the supermarkets limiting losses there to 2.5%.

Magnum, the number one handheld ice cream, did relatively well in the circumstances, thanks to the launch of Ecuador Dark, and new mini and multipacks, including Colombia Aroma, another provenance-driven variant, was launched exclusively in multipack format.

Other Unilever brands fared less well. Cornetto saw limited innovation, while Solero had to compete with the launch of Del Monte smoothies and Fruitcrunch from R&R.

But the decline, in each case, was primarily down to the weather.

The only handheld ice cream to enjoy substantial growth was FAB.

Celebrating its 40th birthday, it was treated to a 14m [pounds sterling] investment in new packaging and promotion, including a successful on-pack promotion to 'Design a FAB den'. Like a number of R&R products it also benefited from new lines of price-marked packs.

"Flashed packs give good constant sales," says Lunn." "Ice cream can be expensive but these lines give consumers confidence."

The saving grace for the ice cream category was tubs, which grew 2.4%.

As well as being less seasonal, it benefited from the increasing popularity of luxury brands such as Ben & Jerry's and Haagen-Dazs, up 30% and 20% respectively, supported by new flavours including Bohemian Raspberry and Carte d'Or's flavour of the year.

Sales of plain vanilla brands such as Wall's and own label declined.

Anuj Lal, Unilever business director of ice cream, says: "People look to brands for tree innovation.

"Since they also invest heavily in promotions against own label, our promotions see a higher level of switch," he adds.

TOP LAUNCH: Frusi

Technically, Unilever's Frusi is n frozen yoghurt, but some may quibble that it's o frozen dessert, and it could even double as the ice-cream lover's breakfast. It is a product of its time: low in calories, it's nevertheless healthy and wholesome, with frozen fruit chunks on the top, frozen yoghurt in the middle, and wholegrain cereal on the bottom. Pitched at adults, it could work just as well for kids.

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TOP CAMPAIGN: Wall's Milk Time

The TV ads for Wall's Milk Time contrasted the difficulties of answering tricky children's questions, such as "Why is water wet?", with finding a treat that isn't going to do them too much harm. Part of Unilever's 6.5m [pounds sterling] spend on Wall's, it repositioned ice cream as a wholesome pleasure food, flagging up the fact that a Milk Time portion contains as much calcium as 100ml of milk.

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TOP 10 ICE CREAM TUBS

TOTAL CATEGORY VALUE
TOTAL OWN LABEL VALUE

1     1     Carte D'Or                 Unilever
2     3     Ben & Jerry's              Unilever
3     4     Hoagen-Dazs                General Mills
4     2     Wall's                     Unilever
5     5     Mackie's                   Mackie's Aberdeen Dairy
6     7     Richmond                   R&R Ice Cream
7     8     Kelly's of Bodmin          Kelly's of Bodmin
8     6     Green & Blacks             Whole Earth
9     10    Fredericks                 Fredericks Dairies
10    9     Hill Station               Hill Station

TOP 10 ICE CREAM TUBS                            2006
                                           SALES (m [pounds
                                              sterling])

TOTAL CATEGORY VALUE                            287.1
TOTAL OWN LABEL VALUE                           113.7

1     1     Carte D'Or                           43.4
2     3     Ben & Jerry's                        28.3
3     4     Hoagen-Dazs                          26.1
4     2     Wall's                               30.2
5     5     Mackie's                             11.0
6     7     Richmond                              4.7
7     8     Kelly's of Bodmin                     5.1
8     6     Green & Blacks                        6.6
9     10    Fredericks                            1.5
10    9     Hill Station                          1.8

TOP 10 ICE CREAM TUBS                            2007
                                           SALES (m [pounds
                                              sterling])

TOTAL CATEGORY VALUE                             294.1
TOTAL OWN LABEL VALUE                            105.3

1     1     Carte D'Or                           39.6
2     3     Ben & Jerry's                        37.0
3     4     Hoagen-Dazs                          31.5
4     2     Wall's                               29.5
5     5     Mackie's                             11.1
6     7     Richmond                              8.8
7     8     Kelly's of Bodmin                     6.8
8     6     Green & Blacks                        5.9
9     10    Fredericks                            3.8
10    9     Hill Station                          0.9

TOP 10 ICE CREAM TUBS                           CHANGE
                                               Y-O-Y (%)

TOTAL CATEGORY VALUE                              2.4
TOTAL OWN LABEL VALUE                            -7.4

1     1     Carte D'Or                           -8.7
2     3     Ben & Jerry's                        30.4
3     4     Hoagen-Dazs                          20.5
4     2     Wall's                               -2.3
5     5     Mackie's                              0.4
6     7     Richmond                             88.7
7     8     Kelly's of Bodmin                    33.5
8     6     Green & Blacks                      -11.3
9     10    Fredericks                          150.7
10    9     Hill Station                        -50.2