Ice Cream
Unilever is the world's biggest ice cream manufacturer, with an annual turnover of €5 billion. With the exception of its U.S. brands Popsicle, Klondike, Ocean Spray ice cream, Slim Fast ice cream, Breyers, Starbucks and Ben & Jerry's, the bulk of the company's ice cream business falls under its "Heartbrand" brand umbrella, so called because of the brand's heart-shaped logo. Unilever currently operates eleven ice cream factories in Europe; the biggest include factories at Heppenheim in Germany, Caivano in Italy, St. Dizier in France, Gloucester in the United Kingdom and Santa Iria de Azóia in Portugal.
The Heartbrand was launched in 1998 (and slightly modified in 2003) as an effort to increase international brand awareness and promote cross-border synergies in manufacturing and marketing ("centralisation"). It is present in more than 40 countries. Although the logo is common worldwide, each country retained the local brand name so as to keep the familiarity built over the years, one notable exception being Hungary where the previous Eskimo brand was replaced with Algida in 2003.
In 2005, Glidat Strauss received special permission from Unilever to export their brand of ice cream to the United States because of the strict kosher certification the products in Israel have. Under terms of the agreement, Strauss ice cream and krembo may be sold only in kosher supermarkets and import shops. It is distributed in North America by Dairy Delight, a subsidiary of Norman's Dairy.
Prior to the heart logo, each country could choose its own logo, although the most common one consisted of a blue circle with the local brand's name over a background of red and white stripes; second most common old logo, used by Wall's in the UK and other countries, was a yellow logo with Wall's in blue text.
Unilever generally manufactures the same ice-cream with the same names, with rare occasions of regional availability, under different brands. Some of these ice-creams include Carte D'Or, Cornetto, Magnum, Solero, Twister and Viennetta.
Read more about this topic: List Of Unilever Brands
Famous quotes related to ice cream:
“The improved American highway system ... isolated the American-in-transit. On his speedway ... he had no contact with the towns which he by-passed. If he stopped for food or gas, he was served no local fare or local fuel, but had one of Howard Johnson’s nationally branded ice cream flavors, and so many gallons of Exxon. This vast ocean of superhighways was nearly as free of culture as the sea traversed by the Mayflower Pilgrims.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)