Like many industrial ice cream parlors, it saw its sales melt in 2021, after the withdrawal last summer of some of its products with too high a level of ethylene oxide.
The cold may have returned for a week over a large part of France, the glaciers are more than ever in battle order to make a success of the season of one of the favorite desserts of the French. And above all forget a failed year 2021. While the market has been showing average annual growth in supermarkets between 3 to 4% for several years, the last season was penalized by withdrawals and recalls of hundreds of references. These had on some of their ingredients, a higher than normal rate of ethylene oxide (ETO).
Although the sanitary irregularity did not present an immediate health risk – and that the ice creams were far from being the only products concerned – its arrival in the middle of the summer season had created damage in the department. By limiting the availability of hundreds of references, and tarnishing the image of the sector, the episode had thus reduced the annual sales of this market of 1.2 billion euros by more than 3%, according to the panelist Iri.
Monopoly of ice cream bars
At Mars Wrigley, the confectionery branch of the American family giant, the sanction had been more severe, with a withdrawal in France of nearly 30% of its annual turnover on this ray. In fact, the group was among the major brands in the sector, among the most concerned. At issue: carob from one of its suppliers, whose legal ETO content was not respected. He had to urgently bring back several of his Twix and Bounty ice cream bars, as well as M&M’s ice cream. If the group weighs only 5% of the tricolor ice cream market, it has a virtual monopoly of ice cream bars (95% of the radius), a segment which it invented 30 years ago.
To erase this failed season, Mars Wrigley is therefore working hard in 2022. He has invested 9 million euros in his Alsatian ice cream site in Steinbourg. Objective: to make it the group’s first site worldwide to be carbon neutral. But also ensure the necessary technological updates on a site running at full capacity. The recipes for its ice cream bars have been adapted to make milk the first ingredient.
Mars also plans to triple its advertising investments over the season. “This is a category that had been little worked on in recent years, recalls Stéphanie Domange, head of Mars Wrigley in France. We will speed up communication, especially on Snickers“. The group has chosen this flagship brand in its portfolio to focus on a third lever: that of innovation. This year it will launch a creamy peanut butter version of its famous confectionery, in frozen and ambient versions.
Weight of innovation
“The objective this year is to ensure double-digit growth in our ice cream sales compared to 2019. In the medium term, we have great ambitions“, insists the leader. Like all industrial or artisanal ice cream parlors, Mars also knows that innovation is one of the major criteria for success in France with consumers. On average, new ice cream recipes weigh 12% of the sector’s annual turnover, ie 4 times more than in all the other departments of consumer products, according to the association of ice cream companies.
Among the major trends, gourmet ice creams (cookies, inclusions, double coating, etc.) continue to be popular. Just like the more daring flavors like sesame, grapefruit, mojito or Piña Colada. And if the organic really struggles to find a place in the department, the French are not against a little freshness and lightness, especially with sorbets or acidulous tastes. So many ideas for enhancement that allow the department to continue to move upmarket, and therefore to hope to increase its turnover.