Shifts in ice cream habits
The time when eating ice cream was one of the main forms of an afternoon out at a pastry shop and later at specialized ice cream parlors seems to have passed forever.
As has the continuous and systematic purchase of individual packages of ice cream from the refrigerators at the kiosk or the neighborhood convenience store, when, in addition to the flavor pleasure, there was also the informal competition of “How many ice creams have you eaten?” but also the existence of two rival groups – fans of the main ice cream companies that existed, namely Delta and EVGA.
At first the economic crisis, then the confinement due to the pandemic and then the inflationary crisis, which is lasting long as it turns out, have drastically changed habits in the consumption of ice cream. However, the multiple rearrangements in the business map of this category over the previous decades also played a role.
While in 2010 supermarkets accounted for only 20% of the total sales of ice cream, now this percentage is estimated to have risen to 50%, with the remaining 50% being distributed among the small points of sale (about 30%) and the other 20% in bulk ice cream sales.
The increase in ice cream sales by supermarkets in turn reveals two more interesting facts: the preference for family ice creams, where there are also big offers, over individual packages and the very large growth of private-label ice cream, the share of which exceeds 60%.
According to the data of market research company Circana, in January-August 2024 the sales of ice cream from supermarkets amounted to 104.52 million euros in total against €93.93 million in the corresponding period of 2022, recording an increase of 11.3%. In fact, sales in value over the eight months are already more than those that had been made in the whole of 2022 that came to €100.69 million.
There was a proportionate increase of 11.4% in the sales volume, from 17.88 million liters in 2023 to 19.91 million liters in the first eight months of 2024.
