During this coldest time of year for many, we feature a dairy product as cold as the temperature: ice cream/sherbet.
We start off 2025 with plenty of good news in the frozen dessert section: ice cream sales are heating up. Overall, the ice cream/sherbet category’s sales advanced 3% year over year (YoY) to $8.65 billion for the 52-week period ending Nov. 3, while unit sales picked up 1% to 1.85 billion, according to Chicago-based market research firm Circana.
Let’s start with the No.1 star of the ice cream category: ice milk/frozen desserts. This subcategory rocketed higher by 17% YoY to nearly $500 million, with unit sales seeing the same YoY gain to nearly 113 million. Unilever’s Breyer’s brand is the No. 1 seller in this category, with ice milk/frozen dessert sales topping $200 million for the year ending Nov. 3, a YoY gain of 6%. Breyer’s unit sales tacked on 7% YoY to 42 million.
But the biggest star of this subcategory perhaps goes to No. 2 seller Wells Enterprises’ Blue Bunny brand. The Le Mars, Iowa-based company enjoyed YoY sales growth totaling an impressive 67% to $105 million, pairing nicely with a 69% YoY unit sales gain to 24 million, Circana data reveals.
Returning to the behemoth ice cream subcategory, YoY sales were up, definitely a positive sign. Ice cream sales reached $7.5 billion for the year ending Nov. 3, a 2% improvement compared to the prior year. Unit sales picked up 1% to 1.6 billion. Private label remains the No. 1 seller in this category. Its dollar sales rose 2% YoY to $1.6 billion, while unit sales dropped 2% to 416 million.
No. 2 seller Ben & Jerry’s, housed under the Unilever brand — soon to move its U.S. headquarters to Hoboken, N.J. — had a solid year, as dollar sales lifted 4% YoY to $1.02 billion, as well as unit sales picking up 5% YoY to 190 million, Circana data shows. Another standout in the ice cream category was Tillamook, Ore.-based Tillamook, whose dollar sales rose a robust 18% YoY to slightly under $400 million, along with a unit sales gain of 15% to 74 million.
Also chipping in a solid year for the period ending Nov. 3 was sherbet/sorbet/ices. This subcategory experienced a dollar sales rise of 8% YoY to $277 million, as well as a 2% unit sales gain to 64 million. Although private label is the No. 1 seller in this category, consumers perhaps eschewed it for name brands. Private-label dollar sales dropped 6% YoY to $87 million, with unit sales suffered a steeper decline of 13% to 24 million.
Three companies had especially strong years in the sherbet/sorbet/ices subcategory however, beginning with No. 2 seller Talenti. Also a Unilever brand, its dollar sales jumped 32% YoY to $82 million, with unit sales rising a similar 33% to 15.7 million, Circana data reports.
The other two companies in the top 10 in sherbet/sorbet/ices enjoyed stellar triple-digit YoY dollar sales gains. No. 8 seller Mayfield Dairy Farms, a 100% farmer-owned brand of Dairy Farmers of America, saw dollar sales climb by 111% YoY to $6.4 million, while unit sales grew 91% to 1.75 million.
The No. 10 seller in the sherbet/sorbet/ices subcategory was Dr. Bombay, whose dollar sales increased by 433% YoY to nearly $3 million. Founded by rapper Snoop Dogg, the company’s unit sales increased by 448% YoY to 625,598.
The one lagging subcategory in the ice cream segment was frozen yogurt/tofu, whose dollar sales dipped by 5% YoY to $318 million, as well as a 3% unit sales decline to 72 million. The No. 1 seller in this subcategory, Ben & Jerry’s, did hold up well, seeing dollar sales rise by 4% YoY to $82 million, along with a 3% unit sales gain to 16 million, according to Circana.
Another standout in the frozen yogurt/tofu subcategory was Breyer’s, the only company other than Ben & Jerry’s among the top 10 sellers to see a YoY sales improvement. The Unilever brand bucked the industry trend, picking up a dollar sales gain of 38% YoY to $12.4 million, matching the same YoY percentage gain to 2.5 million.
