Although Mintel’s 2002 ice cream reports depicted the decline of the overall UK ice cream market, the industry experienced a significant boost in 2003, on the back of a magnificent summer and subsequent increased domestic tourism. In recent years, the take-home ice cream market has played an important role in offsetting the decline of impulse sales. However, the combination of aggressive discounting and price promotions, in addition to the dominance of impulse sales this year, resulted in a 1.9% decline in value sales between 2002 and 2003 for the take-home segment.

Unreliable weather and the increasing trend for price promotions are now threatening the value of the entire market, and the industry is relying on the growth of luxury, premium and super-premium products in both the impulse and take-home markets to stave off decline.

This, the latest report from Mintel Market Intelligence, investigates all these trends and other salient issues, examining whether or not there is any truth in the hypothesis that “outside of exceptional weather years, the ice cream market will continue to decline in value.” Providing a unique overview of the market's size, prospects, structure and consumers it addresses the key topics, including:

The UK summer as the industry salesman – the real impact of 2003’s heatwave on impulse and take-home sales of ice cream

Discounts boost take-home sales

Children’s declining spend on ice cream

The ways in which the luxury sector is driving

How NPD is stimulating demand

Long-term outlook

The nation’s favourite ice creams and their key target groups

This report covers the market for impulse and take-home ice cream. For the purposes of this report, impulse is defined as single-serve ice creams purchased for immediate consumption. This falls into two main categories:

wrapped ice cream products, including ice creams on sticks, ice lollies, cones, individual tubs and choc ices, ice cream confectionery products such as the Mars ice cream bar, ice pops and push-up products

scoop and soft ice cream, which are sold unwrapped (usually in cornets but sometimes in tubs).