Focus On Ice Cream: 15 February

By Vince Bamford (vjbamford@googlemail.com)

Publishing: 15 February 2025

Advertising deadline: 31 January 2025

Submissions deadline: 24 January 2025

Print, digital and sponsorship opportunities

In the face of the chill winds that are blowing through the UK ice cream category, what are branded and own-label producers and retailers doing to maintain sales in terms of innovation, marketing and price engineering in the face of increasing costs and squeezed margins? How successful have these steps been? And what’s in store for 2025?

Commercial considerations: In March 2024, Unilever announced plans to demerge its ice cream business by the end of this year after shelving efforts to sell off its brands. What does this tell us about the pressures ice cream businesses are facing?

Marketing: We will also be looking at how the big brands are using their marketing budgets to convince shoppers to continue putting ice cream tubs and handhelds in their baskets. How reliant are they on celebrity endorsements, primetime TV ads and digital? And how can challengers with shallower pockets cut through the noise?

Retail share: This feature will explore how different retailers are managing the category in terms of ranging, promotions and balancing brands and own label product assortments. How are brands working with retailers to create excitement in the fixture? Which retailers are in strongest growth and why?

Innovation: This feature will pay close attention to the latest trends in ice cream and how this is playing out in terms of product innovation. We will profile four new products or ranges, ideally ones that have not appeared in The Grocer before. We need launch date, rsp, and a hi-res picture of each.