Manchester
5 Day Forecast
Increase ice cream sales with Wall's branded freezers
15/02/2008
Branded freezers lead to increased sales in Total Refrigeration study
Controlled research* commissioned by Total Refrigeration, the country’s leading supplier of branded ice cream freezers, has shown that ice cream sales are significantly higher when the products are displayed in branded as opposed to non-branded in-store freezers.
Over an eight-week period in late summer 2007, the Hyde-based company looked at sales of hand-held ice cream singles and Wall’s singles from its Vista, Maxivision and Maxivision Slimline freezers in 30 test group stores and 30 control stores from its bank of Tesco Express, Co-Op and forecourt customers. Half of the freezers were Wall’s branded while the rest were unbranded, with the subsequent results being measured in terms of both unit and value sales.
Total Refrigeration marketing manager, Stuart Grimshaw, explains: “By matching near identical samples, all market conditions were applied consistently across the two groups meaning that any notable differences were due to the nature of the sampling.
“We had always believed that branded ice cream freezers had a positive influence on both unit and value sales so we were expecting positive results. However, the final figures were even more powerful that we had imagined.”
With Wall’s hand-held singles, total unit sales in Co-Op stores rose by some 45.5% from Wall’s branded freezers with value sales rising by 49.3%. Similarly in Tesco Express stores, unit sales increased by 27.1%, with value sales rising by 23.8% while in Forecourts, unit sales increased by 26.4% and value sales by 28%.
Unsurprisingly, results on hand-held singles were similar, with total unit sales in Co-Op stores increasing by 46% while value sales rose by 50%. In Tesco Express stores, unit sales went up by 20.7% while hand-held sales increased by 21.1% and in Forecourts, unit sales rose by 20.9% with value sales going up by 20.6%.
Looking at the results in real terms, Stuart continues: “While we appreciate that there are fundamental differences in the trading characteristics of outlets such as Tesco Direct and Co-Op and small or independent traders, the trend will still be very much the same.
“With so many popular products, we know that Wall’s is a strong brand and as such, we suspected that the results would demonstrate a difference in sales trends. However, even we were surprised by how marked the disparities were and depending on elements such as customer demographics and footfall, the impact those sales increases can have translates into literally thousands of pounds a year.
“All in all, when you consider that last summer was a poor one weather-wise, it is even more notable that sales from Wall’s branded freezers were significantly higher than from their non-branded counterparts. That leads to a conclusion that should we have a warm summer this year, anyone with branded freezers will stand a good chance of maximising both their unit and value sales to a significant degree.
“That consideration, coupled with imminent additions and technical changes to our range of freezers makes us confident that 2008 will see Total Refrigeration sales continue to increase with our customers continuing to realise the benefit of using branded as opposed to non-branded units.”
* = All data sourced from IRI research, 2007