Goodbye vanilla, we're moving up

By DITA DE BONI

Swiss conglomerate Movenpick thinks New Zealand's super-premium ice-cream market is under-developed, and hopes to have it roundly licked in a couple of years.

This week, the company opened an $8 million manufacturing plant in East Tamaki - proof, it says, that it is serious about seeing Kiwis "trade up" to a more highfaluting style of frozen treat.

New Zealanders are the second-highest per-head eaters of ice cream in the world, after Americans, feasting on more than $60 million-worth a year.

That's the equivalent of 18 litres each. Each year, we buy 34 million litres in ice-cream tubs from supermarkets alone - and that doesn't include the single-serve market, which has been a perennial favourite since grandmother bought a vanilla cone for tuppence as a child.

The market is still largely dominated by two-litre tubs of vanilla and boysenberry ripple. "Super-premium" ice cream, which contains chunky bits, lots of fruit, exotic and "all-natural" ingredients, accounts for only 5 per cent.

Movenpick is still the leader of the super-premium category, after being introduced to New Zealand in 1988 as part of the Swiss company's move into Asia-Pacific. Its maple-walnut and chocolate-chip tubs signified European sophistication in a market dominated by bulky two and four-litre containers.

The company's dominance can be explained by the absence of global competitors Haagen-Daz and Baskin Robbins, but it increasingly faces challenges here from local manufacturers such as Kapiti, Cadbury and Tip Top.

Movenpick recently extended its control of the super-premium market by buying Chateau, makers of Killinchy Golden Licks and the company's signature brand, Chateau ice cream.

Together, the combined companies will have a fair scoop of the premium end of the ice-cream market. They hope the introduction of several new flavours - including Movenpick's Mango Mango and Espresso Croquant - will tempt tastebuds even more.

"Super-premium should make up around 10 to 15 per cent of the ice-cream market here," says Chris White, Movenpick Asia Pacific managing director.

"We think that with our premium ingredients and high quality, people are going to be trading up a lot more."

Marcus Moore, general manager of Kiwi Ice Cream, agrees that premium ice cream is becoming more popular.

"I think consumers are starting to trade up, but it has been a long time coming. It's only been in the last six months that super-premium ice creams have really taken off."

Kiwi caters to the more mainstream ice-cream market. Mr Moore says a good quality vanilla is still the favourite, despite changing fashions.

"New Zealanders love basics, like vanilla, but they love also to be entertained with flavours, which tend to be more fad products."

From Asia to Europe to America, vanilla is by far the most popular ice-cream flavour.

British research has found that despite tens of thousands of flavours produced each year - including the unusual, such as pumpkin, and the downright weird, such as shrimp and garlic - vanilla is still chosen nine times out of 10.

Pen Moore (no relation to Kiwi's Marcus), executive secretary of the Ice Cream Manufacturers Association, agrees that vanilla is the perennial favourite, but says products aimed at children are steadily increasing in popularity, leading to a plethora of fluorescently coloured treats dotted with lollies and bubble gum.

"People definitely seem to be more amenable to buying premium-range ice cream," he says. "The companies making premium are also marketing them in smaller packages, more suitable for today's lifestyle."

But Movenpick's new development is not just aimed at upgrading Kiwis' ice cream eating habits.

The company - which contracted Invercargill's Southern Foods to produce $60 million worth of special Movenpick ice cream for Japan at the end of 1999 - will use the East Tamaki plant as a production base for its Asian and Australian markets.

It chose a New Zealand site because of the proximity to the best-quality dairy products in Asia Pacific, says worldwide chief executive Bruno Schoepfer.

In the coming year, it intends to produce one million litres of Movenpick for export.

The Swiss-based food, restaurant and hotel concern has also hinted that it may open its chain of restaurants in Australasia if it can find a suitable franchise partner.

Tip Top, now controlled by Kiwi Dairies (not to be confused with Kiwi ice cream), also exports to Japan and the Pacific.