Unilever Wants to Be America's Ice Cream King

In the world’s living-large ice cream market, it’s always been about the tub. Well over half of the U.S.’s $12 billion in annual ice cream sales comes from products served up in pints and half gallons, says Greg Miller, a senior principal at the food and beverage advisory firm Parthenon Group. Lately, though, Americans have begun to shift toward European-style single servings on sticks or in cones. So-called frozen novelties now account for 21.2 percent of the U.S. market, according to researcher Euromonitor International, and that share is growing. This change presents a new front in the ice cream wars for Unilever, the global market leader eclipsed stateside by Nestlé.

Through Breyers, Klondike, Ben & Jerry’s, Cornetto, and other brands, Unilever controls roughly one-fifth of the $85 billion worldwide ice cream market, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Industries. That nearly $13 billion in annual sales makes ice cream the single biggest seller for the London- and Rotterdam-based consumer-goods conglomerate, about 15 percent of its total revenue, according to Euromonitor.