Ice cream products that focus on nutritional benefits and pure ingredients are making a mark in the frozen dessert market, while portion-control offerings give consumers options to indulge without too much guilt.
The shelves are crowded in the frozen and refrigerated dessert cases at the grocery store. Not only do manufacturers of pies, cheesecakes and puddings have to deal with competition from each other, but ice cream, frozen yogurt, frozen novelties and even dessert-style yogurts are all competition. The companies also have to find a way to appeal to a consumer base that’s becoming hyperaware of what’s in their food and what they’re willing to put in their bodies.
In the refrigerated desserts category, dollar sales were up 2.8% to $673.5 million, while unit sales were almost at a standstill — up 0.1% to 300.1 million, according to Information Resources Inc. (IRI), Chicago, for the 52 weeks ended June 12, 2016. The numbers for the frozen desserts/toppings category were less promising, with dollar sales up 0.7% to $692.4 million, while unit sales dropped 3.1% to 278.1 million. The ice cream/sherbet category’s dollar sales, as mentioned above, were a bit more promising — dollar sales were up 2.8% to $6.4 billion and unit sales increased 2.5% to 1.7 billion. See a more detailed look of what’s happening in frozen dessert sales.