Economics

General Overview of Ice Cream
The UK market for ice cream and frozen desserts was valued at £1.51bn in 2005, having risen by 2.7% since 2001. Sales have lagged slightly behind those of the food market overall, although they have outperformed sales in the wider sugar and sweet products category. There are two main sectors in the market — ice creams and frozen desserts.
The Market can be further segmented into:

• The take-home sector
• The impulse sector

Take home products are generally items bought in a sizeable quantity for later consumption. Impulse products, as the term implies are generally unplanned purchases for immediate consumption. These include scoop and soft-serve ice creams.
Sales of take-home ice cream account for the largest market share. This has been encouraged by the success of multipacks of single-serve impulse items as well as innovation in bulk ice cream brands. The major share of sales is taken by multipack products, comprising larger packs of individual wrapped impulse products. With regard to tubs, ice cream premium brands were the best performers in 2005, gaining sales ahead of luxury and standard products. However, the take-home market tends to offer a changing range of products on price-based promotions and introductory offers, which may be adversely affecting values in the market.
Impulse ice cream is less price sensitive, and comprises a number of major products and brands. These include Magnum, Cornetto and Skinny Cow, as well as the Mars, Nestlé and Cadbury stick, bar and filled cones portfolios. Sales tend to centre on the summer season, and can be affected by the weather.
The frozen dessert segment has struggled to retain value. The lack of strong branding has been an issue, with the discounting that is endemic in the frozen foods sector also having an adverse effect. However, there are some positive factors — such as investment from the Aunt Bessie's brand, the return of the Sara Lee brand and the introduction of the...