The ice-ing on the cake?
category with a range of serve-from-the-freezer products.
Bakery firm Entenmann's is expanding into the UK frozen dessert category with a range of serve-from-the-freezer products. The move is part of the brand's bid to become a major player across all ambient, chilled and frozen food areas.
The company, which is part of Hibernia Foods, is introducing three ice-cream cakes aimed at young affluent consumers. Entenmann's hopes to achieve growth in what has been a declining market.
"Lack of innovation in a market increasingly driven by value has been one of the main factors in the decline in frozen dessert sales over the last couple of years," said marketing manager Howard Gardiner.
"This has resulted in consumers looking to other areas, such as ambient and chilled, to fulfil their dessert needs. Despite this trend, our research showed that there was a clear opportunity for a premium quality branded option in the market, which would complement the existing everyday brands and own-label offerings and help drive interest back into the freezer cabinet, reinvigorating the market."
Entenmann's is promoting the range as fitting with today's consumer tastes. "Frozen desserts are seen by many consumers as outdated and not relevant to today's busy lifestyles," said Gardiner.
"They do not necessarily want a dessert that has to be eaten in just one sitting or that takes two hours to defrost. They want a more immediate dessert choice, and one which can be easily portioned and returned to the freezer, so they can eat as much or as little as they want."
The range will consist of three premium products: Entenmann's ice-cream sticky toffee blondie, an ice-cream carrot cake and a mango, passion fruit & yoghurt ice-cream smoothie.
"This is the first in a line of product developments planned for the Entenmann's brand within the frozen category over the next 12 months and our aim is to build this into a £14 million (€20.1m) range over the next three years," said Gardiner.
