TAKE-HOME ice cream sales are growing at a faster rate in Scotland than in the rest of Great Britain according to Kantar Worldpanel. Figures for the 12 months to 1 February 2015 reveal that the category grew by 6.7% in Scotland against 4.1% for Britain as a whole.
The market here is now worth £83.5m with 56.9% of Scottish households buying ice cream to eat at home.
Lollies are the most frequently purchased format in Scotland with an average of eight take-home purchases in a year and a spend of £18.22 per shopper.
Across Britain the average spend is £17.67.
But premium ice cream at 31.3% and standard tubs at 24.9% have greater market shares in Scotland than lollies which account for 22.4% of volume.
Of those top three categories, sales in Scotland are beaten by the national figure only in standard tubs which make up 26.5% of GB volume.
Premium ice cream is the second most purchased format in Scottish shops with six purchases in the year.
And Scottish shoppers are fond of premium products and brands.
In Scotland 37.6% of shoppers buy premium brands but the GB figure is only 36.2%
Brands account for 63% of the take-home ice cream spend in Scotland, that’s two percentage points higher than across Britain. Brands buying increases to 68% for lollies and 73% for premium ice cream.
The Kantar figures also show that own-label lines do well in choc ices, which make up 3.5% of Scottish volume and 3.7% of GB take-home ice cream volume, the own-label market share is 49%.
Kantar also found that ice cream is more likely to be sold on promotion than other categories. Almost half (48%) of the take-home spend on products in the category was on promoted products.
