Ice cream sales have been ticking up, showing some promise in the ever-competitive category. Sales of frozen novelties, meanwhile, have not been faring as well. Unit sales have been falling, and dollar sales have been nearly frozen.
The ice cream/sherbet category’s dollar sales increased 2.7% to $6.8 billion, and unit sales were up 1% to 1.8 billion, for the 52 weeks ending Oct. 8, 2017, according to Information Resources Inc. (IRI), Chicago. In the frozen novelties category, dollar sales rose 0.7% to $4.9 billion, but unit sales fell 1.6% to 1.5 billion.