Indulgence for Everyone
by Julie Cook
Makers of superpremium ice creams ride the low-carb wave
while staying true to their core constituencies.
Top 10 Ice Cream Brands* | |||||
Total Category | $ Sales (In Millions) |
% Change vs. Year Ago |
Dollar Share |
Unit Sales (In Millions) |
% Change vs. Year Ago |
$4,474.0 | -2.1% | 100.0% | 1,227.9 | -0.8% | |
Private Label | 1,000.4 | -3.6 | 22.4 | 153.7 | 2.6 |
Breyers | 651.3 | 0.1 | 14.6 | 112.3 | 2.3 |
Dreyer’s/Edy’s Grand | 474.1 | 0.4 | 10.6 | 70.5 | 2.6 |
Blue Bell | 241.6 | 1.4 | 5.4 | 61.2 | 4.7 |
Häagen-Dazs | 217.3 | 7.4 | 4.9 | 60.0 | 7.1 |
Ben & Jerry’s | 198.8 | -0.4 | 4.4 | 28.4 | -0.2 |
Wells Blue Bunny | 108.0 | -0.8 | 2.4 | 29.7 | -0.1 |
Turkey Hill | 107.7 | -4.6 | 2.4 | 29.7 | -1.5 |
Dreyer’s/Edy’s Grand Light | 99.9 | 5.8 | 2.2 | 22.3 | 6.1 |
Healthy Choice | 90.5 | -15.9 | 2.0 | 20.5 | -17.4 |
* Total sales in supermarkets,
drug stores and mass merchandisers, excluding Wal-Mart, for the 52-week period ending January 25, 2004. SOURCE: Information Resources Inc. |
During times of economic strife, consumers typically embrace two behaviors.
They turn to the comforts of hearth and home, seeking to soothe the sting of
job uncertainty or unemployment, not to mention plummeting savings and retirement
accounts. Additionally, they force themselves to give up little indulgences,
like new cars, family vacations and other extravagances.
On the one hand, this trend bodes well for ice cream,
as it most certainly counts as a comfort food, a taste that harkens back to
happier times. But few could honestly claim it as a necessity, making it
one of the easier things to give up when times get tough.
Apparently, that’s just what some consumers have
done. According to data from Chicago-based Information Resources Inc., ice
cream sales in U.S. supermarkets, drug stores and mass merchandisers,
excluding Wal-Mart, fell 2.1 percent in dollars and 0.8 percent in units
during the 52-week period ending January 25, 2004. The case could be made
that other factors, such as rising butterfat prices and encroachment from
other dessert categories, could be partly to blame. For example, butter
prices soared by almost a dollar a pound between January and the end of
March, when the average weekly price reached a level more than double that
of a year earlier.
But many processors heap the bulk of the blame squarely
on the struggling economy. “There’s no question in my mind that
the ice cream category has paid the price of a down economy,” says
Walt Friese, chief marketing officer, Ben & Jerry’s Homemade
Inc., South Burlington, Vt. “In addition, there’s been a shift
in consumer eating habits toward healthier options and innovation,
category-wide, has just not kept pace.”
That’s not to suggest the entire ice cream
category is in the doldrums. On the contrary, one area in particular
— superpremium — has been experiencing significant growth,
according to Rick Brown, senior vice president and general sales manager,
Lee’s Ice Cream, Owings Mills, Md.
As about why superpremium ice cream has been able to
prosper while the rest of the category has struggled, it’s no great
mystery to Lee’s owner Steven Rubin. “When you want ice cream,
you want the best ice cream, so you turn to superpremium,” he
explains. “That means something high fat, creamy and
delicious.”
Carb Conscious
Increasingly, as consumers have lost their fear of fat
and instead turned their attention to counting carbohydrates with diet
programs like Atkins and South Beach, they have given high-fat products
like superpremium ice cream a second look. Many have determined they can
fit such treats into their diet after all — as long as they
don’t contain too many carbs, that is. Not surprisingly, a number of
ice cream manufacturers have focused their R&D efforts on producing
low-carb superpremium ice creams, most replacing the sugar with Splenda® brand
sucralose.
To that end, Cleveland-based Pierre’s French Ice
Cream Co. recently unveiled Carb Success™ No Sugar Added Ice Cream in Chocolate and Vanilla
varieties. Sweetened with Splenda, the product contains 3 grams of net
carbohydrates per half-cup serving. Developing a low-carb option without
losing the taste and texture of superpremium ice cream didn’t pose
too great of a challenge, according to John Pimpo, Pierre’s assistant
marketing manager. Rather, the challenge lies in determining which flavors
to add to the line next, he says.
When it came to snagging the official Atkins license
for low-carb superpremium ice cream, that accomplishment goes to two
companies. First, Mister Cookie Face, Lakewood, N.J., launched Atkins® Endulge™ ice cream
in portion-controlled cups. Then Ronkonkoma, N.Y.-based CoolBrands
International Inc. rolled out Endulge pint flavors and frozen novelties to
further meet consumer demand for something both indulgent and diet.
“It really is the best of both worlds,”
boasts Matt Smith, CoolBrands vice president of marketing. “It takes
down the sugar, but it is a superpremium-quality ice cream, meaning 16
percent butterfat. It fits the low-carb lifestyle, but it still has the
great taste that people are looking for.”
Smith says securing the Atkins license for pints and
novelties helped CoolBrands round out its superpremium ice cream offerings.
In recent years, the company acquired the Dreamery brand from
Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, as well as the license for Godiva® brand ice
cream products.
“When it comes to superpremium, we feel we are
incredibly well-positioned,” says Smith. “People are looking
for a great indulgent flavor experience, and we’ve got three brands
that deliver on that — Godiva with the signature chocolate, whether
in the ice cream or the inclusions; Dreamery with an array of innovative
flavor combinations; and now, we’ve got Atkins.”
To help consumers easily identify the wide variety of
superpremium offerings presented by just one company, CoolBrands plans to
bundle all its superpremium brands into one in-store display. According to
Smith, the idea is to give consumers the “breadth of variety they are
looking for” at the point-of-sale, while creating more critical mass
for CoolBrands in-store.
“That’s something that’s not lost on
the trade accounts,” he explains. “They are obviously looking
to maximize their business, and when we are able to pool all those brands
together, they see that we’ve got the variety that consumers are
looking for, and they support us for that.”
But not everyone is anxious to jump on the low-carb
bandwagon. While management at Lee’s is certainly keeping an eye on
the trend, their impression seems to be that the whole Atkins diet is a
passing fad.
“The product will get out there, it will get a
lot of shelf space and have a lot of sales, but then it will disappear
within a couple of years,” predicts Brown. “We’re more
interested in long-range growth than short-term fads.”
Instead of investing lots of money and effort into
developing low-carb products, Lee’s has focused on growing
distribution for pints of its “fresh-baked” superpremium ice
cream, which features chunks of Claudia’s Kitchen desserts, such as
gourmet cookies, cakes and pies. Numerous co-branded varieties currently
are available, including Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie, Fudgie,
Coffee Chocolate Pecan Cookie, Mint Brownie and Cookie Dough. Other
Lee’s varieties are Strawberry, Chocolate, Banana Chocolate Chip,
Butter Pecan, Cherry Vanilla, Carmel Truffle Swirl, Old Fashioned Chocolate
Chip and Death by Chocolate.
The company makes no bones about the fact that
convenience stores are its channel of choice. “You have the potential
for greater visibility, you have a smaller group of products in the stores,
and it’s grab and go — real impulse buy,” says Brown.
Also not falling into the low-carb landslide is
Oakland, Calif.-based Dreyer’s. Instead,
the processor is introducing a new version of its
Dreyer’s/Edy’s Grand Light made with a new slow-churning
process designed to make lowfat frozen products that taste like
superpremium. Gary Rogers, Dreyer’s chief executive officer,
describes the process as high pressure/low temperature freezing technology.
The new Grand Light is touted as having half the fat
and a third of the calories of regular Dreyer’s/Edy’s
offerings. So far, early indicators are positive. The company reports that
nearly eight out of 10 consumers participating in blind national taste
tests believed the product was either a full-fat premium or superpremium
ice cream.
Juggling Act
Meanwhile, Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Cold Stone Creamery
remains committed to its franchise concept, considering retail as a
long-term goal rather than an immediate one.
Boasting product that’s custom-made daily on a
frozen granite stone, the company sells a variety of superpremium ice
creams along with mix-ins like fruits, candies, nuts and traditional
toppings. Cold Stone’s decadent creations sport monikers like Cherry
Cake Double Take, Mud Pie Mojo, Nights in White Chocolate, Cookie
Doughn’t You Want Some and At the Cocoa Banana Cabana. According to
communications manager Kevin Donnellan, Cold Stone was the first processor
to introduce Cake Batter ice cream early last year, a flavor that some in
the industry have predicted to be “the next cookie dough.”
“It tastes like you’re licking the
bowl,” Donnellan says of the flavor. “It’s a unique and
indulgent flavor with a very smooth and creamy consistency.”
Like most other processors, Cold Stone has been
monitoring the Atkins craze and plans to unveil its own low-carb ice cream
during the latter part of the summer. Currently in the final testing stage,
the low-carb incarnation of the company’s Sweet Cream ice cream
boasts a “tremendous flavor,” says Donnellan.
Not about to let its fervent consumer base down, Ben
& Jerry’s has also unveiled a line of low-carb superpremium ice
cream pints. Each Carb Karma flavor features 2 to 5 grams of net carbs per
serving. Guaranteed to “stimulate your mind, satisfy your belly and
soothe your soul,” Carb Karma is available in Half Baked, Chocolate
and Vanilla Swiss Almond varieties. (See New Products in this issue.)
“It tested our creativity, as well as our food
science expertise, but we have come up with some products that really
deliver on the Ben & Jerry’s promise,” says Friese.
“We really feel that our R&D team and flavor developers did a
fabulous job bringing Ben & Jerry’s quality and innovation to a
new segment.”
Of course, even though Ben & Jerry’s has
decided to invest in low-carb and other better-for-you ice creams,
it’s not about to neglect its core line. In recent months, the
company has rolled out three new classic flavors — Primary Berry
Graham, Oatmeal Cookie Chunk and Vanilla Swiss Almond.
“There are a lot of consumers who still come to
Ben & Jerry’s for over-the-top indulgence in the core pint line,
so we will continue to exercise focus in terms of product development
there,” says Friese. “We remain committed to Ben &
Jerry’s core ice cream pint business, as well as to bringing new and
innovative flavors to the line.”
Meanwhile, the past year has seen a small, upstart
company launch a superpremium line that it positions as a political
alternative to Ben & Jerry’s, a company that has become known for
its commitment to causes often labeled as “liberal.”
Baltimore-based Star Spangled Ice Cream Co. makes right-wing-themed
flavors, including Smaller Govern-mint, Nutty Environmentalist, Iraqi Road
and the new Gun Nut, a coconut ice cream with roasted almonds and chocolate
chips. Star Spangled donates a percentage of its
profits to conservative-leaning causes. The idea, according to company vice
president Richard Lesser, is to offer consumers an alternative to Ben &
Jerry’s causes.
Friese dismisses the jabs. “They’ve been out there a while now,”
he says, “and the consumers have already voted.”
Julie Cook is a freelance journalist based in the Chicago
area.
Sampling Superpremiums
What a short break from better-for-yous can bring.
With the nation in the grips
of the low-carbohydrate juggernaut, the market is being flooded by a steady
stream of “better-for-you” ice creams and frozen novelties,
mostly of the no-sugar-added variety to satisfy the demand of Atkins and
South Beach dieters.
Dairy Field applauds
this flurry of innovation and the monumental effort of processors to meet
the growing demands of the public in a timely and efficient manner. But
after reading about, writing about and tasting a bewildering array of
healthier indulgences, we got to wondering what we might be missing in the
traditional superpremium channel — full fat, real sugar, sumptuous
variegates and chunky inclusions.
So we rounded up a few of the newest pint flavors we
could find at a major grocery retailer near the Stagnito Communications
corporate headquarters, including one of the new low-carb offerings —
sweetened with sucralose but possessing a fat content that qualifies it as
a superpremium. We also sampled a boutique brand provided to us by the
maker who’s planning to eventually take the line national.
Here are the results of a recent afternoon Dairy Field staff members
spent eating some ice cream. Participating were publisher Matt
O’Shea, R&D editor Kathie Canning and managing editor James
Dudlicek. The numbered overall scores, on a 1-10 scale (10 being the best),
are an average of scores offered for criteria including taste, texture and
richness.
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