Major Worldwide Producers of Ice Cream

Just under one-third of establishments in 2002 (31%) were of some size, employing twenty or more people. These data indicate an industry of many small independent operations serving local or regional markets. Many are family owned, many are local dairies. Just a handful of companies have a commanding national or international market. Most of these latter have been assembled under the fold of two major food companies: Unilever N.V. and Nestlé S.A. Yet others with national name recognition are also owned by food companies. An example is Baskin-Robbins owned by Dunkin’ Brands (of Dunkin’ Donuts fame) which is itself owned by several investment companies (Bain Capital, Thomas Lee Partners, and the Carlysle Group). Another is Healthy Choice, owned by ConAgra.

Based on data assembled by Market Share Reporter, in 2005 Nestlé was the leading company in the United States with 23 percent of the market, followed by Unilever with 22 percent, and in 2002 Unilever was the top producer worldwide (16.3%) followed by Nestlé (11%). In 2007 both of these companies maintained their dominance, controlling half the market in the United States and more than one-third of the market globally. Nestlé owns Dreyer’s and Häagen-Dazs, the second and third-ranked brands in the United States in 2006 according to Dairy Field. Dreyer’s is known as Edy’s in markets west of the Rocky Mountains and the brand is usually referred to as Dreyer’s/Edy’s. Nestlé is a leading brand in ice cream novelties in its own right, and novelties are the most rapidly growing category in ice cream.

Unilever owns Breyers, the top brand in the United States in 2006, acquired in 1993. That same year Unilever also acquired the Sealtest line and merged these into its wholly-owned Good Humor-Breyer’s Ice Cream Company. Good Humor had also been an independent company and was the originator of the first-ever ice cream bar. Unilever acquired Good Humor in 1961. By the time of Breyer’s acquisition, Unilever had also purchased Gold Bond Ice Cream in 1989. The company acquired Ben & Jerry’s in 2000, but has been operating that acquisition as a separate company rather than as part of the Good Humor-Breyer’s combination. Ben & Jerry’s was the fifth-ranking U.S. brand in 2006. Like Nestlé, Unilever represents a family of ice cream brands but, unlike Nestlé, has no ice cream called by its own name.Ice cream making is a relatively low-cost-of-entry type of business and continues to attract entrepreneurs who hope to make their mark by some unique differentiation. Two of the leading brands of the early twenty-first century began in the second half of the twentieth century. Häagen-Dazs being a new brand arising from a family already in the ice cream business since the 1920s and Ben & Jerry’s, a start-up company.