Americans Just Don't Eat As Much Ice Cream As They Used To

We haven’t ditched our Sunday sundaes, weeknight binges with Ben & Jerry’s, or our Monday Magnums entirely, but the data is irrefutable: America is eating less ice cream. And consumer giants like British powerhouse Unilever are well aware.

After decades of dominating freezer aisles, Unilever is planning to part ways with its $8.7 billion ice cream empire, home to Magnum, Wall’s, and Ben & Jerry’s. The breakup comes as Unilever undergoes a major upheaval of its own. Hein Schumacher, the CEO who spearheaded the ice cream spin-off deal, was abruptly ousted last month after just 20 months on the job, reportedly for failing to turn the struggling company around fast enough.

So, why is Unilever walking away from this multibillion-dollar unit packed with household name brands? For starters, it might not want to swim against the tide in its largest market, the US.

According to data from the US Department of Agriculture, per-capita consumption of ice cream and frozen desserts has been shrinking for nearly 50 years.

See the full article here.