Towards a new record year for ice cream sales? According to data from panelist NielsenIQ, sales of these products have been on an upward trend for nearly a decade. Between 2014 and 2022, the annual turnover of ice cream increased by almost 400 million euros until flirting with the threshold of 1.4 billion euros: a record.
Marked by the end of sanitary restrictions, last summer it even allowed ice cream sales to increase by 275 million euros throughout the year compared to 2021.
Individual icy queens of the fridges
More generally, the specialized consumer consultancy Circana estimates the turnover of frozen sweets in supermarkets and hypermarkets at 1,640 million euros, an increase of 14.1% in value and 7.7% in volume.
In detail, it is the individual specialties and in particular the individual ice creams that contribute this figure with sales of more than one billion euros. They are followed by sorbets and bulk ice creams whose turnover amounts to 340 million euros, more than double that of the desserts and pastas that complete the podium of the ice cream sweets most in demand by the French. To a lesser extent, specialties to share and especially those at the end of the year complete the total amount with, however, more substantial increases in their billing, around 15%.
Super and hypermarkets capture more than 70% of sales
These impressive figures confirm the popularity of ice cream among the French. According to an OpinionWay survey, more than two out of three French consumers buy them in supermarkets and department stores and 27 million households put them in their shopping cart last year: this is 700,000 more than in 2021 according to NielsenIQ data. The panelist indicates that ice creams were sold at 70% in hypermarkets and supermarkets, at just over 10% in local businesses.
On the other hand, NielsenIQ sees a decline in organic ice cream sales in 2022, for the second consecutive year. It also notes a decrease in the weight of innovations in the turnover of sweet frozen foods, which has been taking place for almost ten years: now they only weigh 2%.
Source: BFM TV
