Data sundae

Ice cream sales rose by 5.7% in 2001, according to ACNielsen (Schaumburg, Ill.), while frozen novelty growth exceeded 10%. Those impressive numbers were tempered by more sluggish volume gains, 1.6% for ice cream and 5.4% for novelties, over the past year (see table below).

Private label items continue to dominate the category according to Chicago-based Information Resources Inc. (see page 11). Private label is the largest "brand" in the ice cream, frozen yogurt/tofu, sherbet/sorbet/ice, and frozen novelty sub-categories; total private label ice cream and frozen novelty sales topped $1.45 billion for 52 weeks ended 12/2/01, says IRI, the largest chunk of which is bulk ice cream, which made up $992 million of private label sales. That was a 4.4% gain versus the same period in 2000, however, units were off 4.4%, versus a total bulk ice cream category unit drop of only 1.9%