Magazine: Little things add up to big things

By last year shoppers got over the first shock of the pandemic and started spending more time in grocery stores, which led to an increase in the sales of impulse products, such as ice cream. Fanni Purman, Unilever Magyarország Kft.’s innovation HUB brand manager: “Besides the revitalisation of impulse ice creams, the other segments of the market haven’t come to a halt either. Sales of tub, multipack and classic box products also strengthened in comparison with the previous year.”

Strengthening manufacturer brands

Rita Bedy
senior key account
manager
Froneri

Rita Bedy, Froneri’s senior key account manager explained that due to the increased demand for multipack ice creams, the market share of large-sized box products kept reducing and is now below 50%. For Froneri (they distribute Mondelez and Nestlé ice creams in the Hungarian market) it is really good news that the value share of private label ice creams, which grew in the first year of the pandemic, has dropped back to less than 40% by now (this was the 2019 level).

György Cserép
sales director
Ledo

György Cserép, Ledo Kft.’s sales director called our attention to the fact that ice creams must share freezer space with a growing number of product categories in stores, while the visibility of ice cream is very important, being an impulse product category. Chocolate is still the king of ice cream flavours, but demand is growing for exotic and fruit flavours.

Barbara Kovács
junior brand manager
Maresi Foodbroker

Barbara Kovács, Maresi Foodbroker Kft.’s junior brand manager reckons that the exciting salted caramel flavour is conquering the market. This is also one of the top Häagen-Dazs flavours – Maresi is the distributor of this brand. Pint-sized ice creams are more and more popular, in part thanks to the fact that US brands Häagen-Dazs and Ben&Jerry have entered the Hungarian market.

Special new products in all formats

Unilever’s experience is that besides still liking the classic flavours, shoppers also wish to try new ones. If these two flavour types are combined, the result can be exciting, and a good example of this was Magnum Double Gold Caramel in 2021. The Magnum brand will roll out new products this year too, utilising a new technology: Magnum Remix is a double dipped ice cream that debuts in 2022, when Magnum Almond and Magnum White Chocolate meets to create Magnum Remix Almond White Chocolate. The new product will be available in stick, multipack and tub formats.

Demand for ice creams bought on impulse started to grow, but it did not cause other segments of the market to come to a halt

This year’s other new innovation is Algida Pöttyös ice creams. They are marketed in stick and cone variants, in single and multipack packaging. Algida Pöttyös ice creams are made with cottage cheese and were inspired by dairy snack Pöttyös Túró Rudi. For those who like their ice cream in a box, the company offers a special new flavour, as Carte d’Or and Baileys™ teamed up to create a vanilla-Baileys™ product.

Consumers not only seek well-performing basic taste variants but also specialties

Even more multipacks

This year Froneri is going to increase the proportion of multipack ice cream in its portfolio by 40%. The company will concentrate on its presence in classic sales channels, and they think the key to success is successful product launches, and efficient and well-communicated promotions, combined with the online availability of their brands.

In LEDO Kft.’s portfolio popular family-sized products are very important. From these demand is the biggest for the 5-product Ledo range and the 4-product Ginissimo Grande line. The company’s KING range is premium category stick ice creams, which are available in 7 flavours; they also have cone products, 220ml King Kornet Malina Cake and King Kornet Dark Velvet. LEDO Kft. has frozen strudel, puff pastry and fruit products too.

Manufacturer brands strengthened

Premium flavours in duo format

Häagen-Dazs has been present in Maresi Foodbroker Kft.’s product portfolio since the end of 2020. Pint-sized packaging (460ml tub) is the pillar of the Häagen-Dazs brand, but minicup (with spoon) and stick ice creams are also available from the brand. This year the new Häagen-Dazs ice creams are Belgian Chocolate & Crispy Vanilla DUO and Dark Chocolate & Crispy Salted Caramel DUO. The company believes that the sales potential is still the biggest in the classic retail channels, and they are also busy familiarising Hungarian consumers with the brand.

József Szalay
managing director
Anjuna Ice Pops

Anjuna ice cream is only present in the impulse segment. József Szalay, managing director of Anjuna Ice Pops Kft. sees growing shopper demand for ‘free-from’ and plant-based ice creams. The company wanted to launch a multipack product already last year, which had to be postponed to 2022. In the winter the company moved production to a bigger and more modern factory. //

Manufacturer brands are the best-selling ice creams

Guest writer:
Katalin Séra 
senior analyst
NielsenIQ

Ice cream sales exceeded HUF 44bn in January-December 2021. Value sales grew by 11% and volume sales were up 5%. Hungarians purchased more than 34 million litres of ice cream. Stores with a floor space between 401 and 2,500m² realised 59% of value sales. About 60% of ice creams sold were manufacturer brands and private labels had a 40% market share. Sales jumped 13% in the former segment and climbed 8% in the latter. Shopper demand was the biggest for 100-249ml ice creams – they made up for 30% of value sales. Lactose-free ice creams had a 2% market share. Impulse ice creams realised 52% of sales and family-sized products had a 48% share in sales. //