Heating Up Ice-Cream Sales Trends
By
Steve Dwyer, CSP Reporter
, April 9, 2018
Ice cream is a $1.3 billion business across the total U.S. convenience-store channel, accounting for 1% of total c-store sales, excluding gas and lottery, according to IRI.
In the category-management realm, there’s much to chew on: The category actually declined 3% in the 52 weeks ending Dec. 31, 2017, but several subcategories and packages are begging for attention, including frozen yogurt/tofu, ice milk, frozen dairy desserts and ice-pop novelties, as well as bars, cups, cones and sticks.
Here's a look at year-end performance data for the category.
Ice Cream/Sherbet

Growing
- Frozen yogurt/tofu, at $2.6 million in sales, saw units increase 26.0%.
Falling
- Ice cream/sherbet dollar sales fell 2.7% to $528.0 million, and unit sales fell 4.6% to 118.0 million.
- Private-label dollar sales are down 1.4% and units are down 3.8%.
- Ice milk/frozen dairy desserts, at $10.8 million in sales, saw units decline 0.7%.
C-store sales, according to IRI; 52 weeks ending Dec. 31, 2017
Frozen Novelty

Growing
- The subcategory of frozen ice cream/ice milk dessert saw units increase 6.4%.
- The subcategory of ice-pop novelties, at $1.1 million, saw units grow 9.4%.
Falling
- Frozen-novelty dollar sales fell 2.6% to $773.2 million, while units were down 4.1%.
- Among the top 10 frozen novelties, Nestle Drumstick (Nestle Dreyer’s) saw dollar sales drop 6.7% to $54.2 million and unit sales fall 9.2% to 18.9 million.
- Dollar sales for Klondike decreased 6.1%, and unit sales were down 8.8%.
C-store sales, according to IRI; 52 weeks ending Dec. 31, 2017