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| Product type | |
|---|---|
| Owner | Unilever |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Introduced | 1922 |
| Related brands | Wall's (meat) |
| Tagline |
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| Website | www |
Wall's is an ice cream and frozen dessert brand in the United Kingdom owned by Unilever and is part of the Heartbrand global frozen dessert brand.
Wall's also owns the rights to the Mr. Whippy soft-serve ice cream mix.
Wall's was founded in 1786 by Richard Wall, when he opened a butcher's stall in St James's Market, London. In the 1900s the business was led by Richard's grandson Thomas Wall II. Every year the company had to lay off staff in the summer as demand for its sausages, pies and meat fell, so in 1913 Thomas Wall II conceived the idea of making ice cream in the summer to avoid those lay-offs; the First World War meant that his idea was not implemented until 1922. [1] Following his retirement in 1920, Thomas Wall II created his Trust for the "encouragement and assistance of educational work and social service". Today, the Trust continues to assist in these areas by providing grants to individuals and organisations. [2]
By 1922 the business had been jointly bought by Lever Brothers and Margarine Unie. [3] Maxwell Holt was put in charge and he revived the idea of producing ice cream, with near instant success. Ice cream production commenced in 1922 at a factory in Acton, London. In 1959, Wall's doubled capacity by opening a purpose-built ice cream factory in Gloucester, England.
There is a garage on the corner of Aultone Way and Angel Hill in Benhilton, Sutton, London, built in about 1913 and still in use today, which was originally used for the storing of the 'Stop Me and Buy One' bicycles of Thomas Wall's business.
On March 19, 2024, Unilever announced it would divest its ice cream brands and cut 7,500 jobs in order to make “a simpler, more focused and higher performing Unilever.” Included in the spin-off are Ben & Jerry's, Cornetto, Magnum, Talenti, and Wall’s. The divestment is expected to be completed by the end of 2025. [4]
Unilever continues to use the brand for ice cream in the UK [5] and it has become part of the company's international Heartbrand strategy, where it retains its local ice cream brand but shares one logo and most of the product's lineup with the various other Heartbrand brands across the world. Whilst remaining (2006) the market leader in the UK for individual hand-held products such as Cornetto and Magnum, and value-added multi-portion products designed to be eaten at home, such as Viennetta, the Wall's brand faces severe competition from the major supermarket brands and to a lesser extent from Nestlé (absorbing the Rowntree's and Lyons Maid brands) and Mars spin-off ice cream products. [6]
Wall's holds a prominent position in the global ice cream market, with two of its brands ranked among the top ten worldwide. Operating under the Heartbrand logo, they produce 40 distinct brands across 52 countries. [7]
In 2013, Wall's expanded into the UK confectionery market following a licensing deal with Kinnerton Confectionery, leading to the introduction of ambient chocolate bar variations for the Magnum, Cornetto and Mini Milk ice cream brands. [8]
In 2017, Wall's created Magnum Ice Cream Tubs which are sold in shops. [9]
The brand launched in Canada in 2022 with a range of Asian-inspired flavours including bubble tea and ube. [10] These flavours are not actually available under the Wall's brand in the UK but are intended to leverage global recognition of the Heartbrand logo; Unilever uses the Breyers brand for its main range of ice cream products in Canada. [11]
Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings Inc., trading and commonly known as Ben & Jerry's, is an American company that manufactures ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet. Founded in 1978 in Burlington, Vermont, the company went from a single ice cream parlor to a multinational brand over the course of a few decades. The company was sold in 2000 to the multinational conglomerate Unilever but operates as an independent subsidiary. Its present-day headquarters is in South Burlington, Vermont, with its factory in Waterbury, Vermont.
Drumstick is the brand name, owned by Froneri, a joint venture between Nestlé and PAI Partners, for a variety of frozen dessert-filled ice cream cones sold in the United States, Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and other countries. The original product was invented by I.C. Parker of the Drumstick Company of Fort Worth, Texas, in 1928.
Cornetto is an Italian brand of ice cream cone dessert, which is manufactured and owned by parent company Unilever. Cornetto are sold as part of the Heartbrand product line, known internationally by different names, including Algida in Italy, Wall's in the UK and Pakistan, HB in the Republic of Ireland, Frigo in Spain, and Kwality Wall's in India. Many variations of the product exist, ranging from milk-based ice cream to vegetable fat-based dessert.
Good Humor is a Good Humor-Breyers brand of ice cream started by Harry Burt in Youngstown, Ohio, US, in the early 1920s with the Good Humor bar, a chocolate-coated ice cream bar on a stick sold from ice cream trucks and retail outlets. It was a fixture in American popular culture in the 1950s when the company operated up to 2,000 "sales cars".
Aero is an aerated chocolate bar manufactured by the Vevey-based company Nestlé. Originally produced by Rowntree's, Aero bars were introduced in 1935 to the North of England as the "new chocolate". By the end of that year, it had proved sufficiently popular with consumers that sales were extended throughout the United Kingdom.
Magnum is a brand of ice cream and the company's namesake, originally developed and produced by Frisko in Aarhus, Denmark, a part of the British company Unilever. It is sold as part of the Heartbrand line of products, which is owned by Unilever in most countries and is available in sticks, tubs and bites. In Greece, the Magnum brand name has been owned by Nestlé since 2005–2006 following the acquisition of Delta Ice Cream, so the Unilever ice cream uses the name Magic.
Breyers is a brand of ice cream started in 1866 by William A. Breyer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Kibon is a Brazilian ice cream producer, now owned by Unilever. The logo that it uses is the same Heartbrand logo that Wall's ice cream, Good Humor, Streets, Selecta and Langnese use in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Philippines and Germany respectively, also owned by Unilever.
Kwality Wall's is an Indian multinational frozen desserts brand owned by the Indian consumer goods company Hindustan Unilever. It is a major producer and distributor of frozen dessert products in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia. In Pakistan and Bangladesh, it's called only as "Wall's".
Selecta is a Filipino dairy products brand owned by RFM Corporation. Its milk business is operated by RFM Corporation, while its ice cream business is operated under a joint-venture with Unilever Philippines, Inc., and serves as the Philippine branch of Unilever's Heartbrand line of ice cream.
The Wibbly Wobbly Wonder was an ice cream on a stick which was marketed in Ireland in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. It was made by HB Ice Cream, having been conceived in 1974 as a cost saving measure by Gerry Keegan, an accountant at the company at the time. It was taken off the market in the late 1990s, before being made and marketed again briefly as part of HB's 80th anniversary celebrations in 2006.
Viennetta is a British brand of ice cream dessert made by Unilever and sold under the various Heartbrand brands around the world. The original Viennetta consists of several rippled layers of ice cream separated by thin layers of sprayed-on compound chocolate. It is available in many flavours, including vanilla and mint.
Lyons Maid is a brand of ice-creams and ice-lollies created in 1925 as a spin-off from the J. Lyons and Co. retail organisation. It is now owned by the Froneri joint venture.
Streets is an Australian ice-cream brand bought by the British multinational company Unilever in 1960. Some products are made in China and shipped to Australia and New Zealand. It is part of Unilever's ice cream brand Heartbrand. The company is in a long-term contract with dairy company Dairy Farmers.
Golden Gaytime is a popular ice cream snack that is made and distributed by the Streets confectionery company in Australia, and first released in 1959. It is a toffee and vanilla ice cream dipped in compound chocolate, and wrapped in vanilla biscuit-like "crumbs" on a wooden paddlepop-stick. Its name has survived intact regardless, or because, of the possible homosexual connotations in modern decades.
Mövenpick Ice Cream is a brand of ice cream of Swiss origin produced initially by Nestlé. Since 2016, Froneri - a joint venture between Nestlé and R&R Ice Cream - manufactures it.
Paddle Pop is a brand of ice confection products originally created by Streets, which is now owned by the English-Dutch company Unilever. It is sold in Australia, New Zealand, and a few other countries. It is held for eating by a wooden stick which protrudes at the base. The brand has a mascot known as the Paddle Pop Lion, or Max, who appears on the product wrapper.
Calippo is a frozen dessert introduced by Unilever in 1984 to European markets.
Talenti is an American brand of gelato and sorbet produced by Unilever. Talenti is named after Bernardo Buontalenti, who is credited with inventing gelato.
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