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.
History The first Mövenpick restaurant opened in Zürich on 19 July 1948 by Ueli Prager. By 1958, they had eight restaurants located throughout Switzerland. Prager would remain operating manager of the Mövenpick group, now called Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, until 1991.
Originally, in the 1960s, the ice cream was produced by the Mövenpick group for restaurant sales only. The plant in Bursins was built in 1972, however, production has now been shifted to a larger unit in Rorschach.
In 1974, Mövenpick was licensed in Germany by ice cream manufacturer, Theo Schöller, later known as Scholler Lebensmittel GmbH & Co KG. In 2002, EU regulators reviewed, and later approved, Nestlé's purchase of the Scholler Holding Group from Sudzucker, including licensing to sell Mövenpick in some European countries. The decision was made because while the merger would strengthen Nestlé's positioning in the ice cream market, Unilever's role in the market would ensure continued strong competition in the sector.
In March 2000, Mövenpick acquired the Auckland-based Chateau Creme Delight Ice Cream company.
In 2002, Bauer was licensed to distribute and market Mövenpick in the United Kingdom.
In April 2003, Nestlé bought the international rights for Mövenpick ice cream from the hotel group, and an independent business unit called "Swiss Premium Ice Cream" was created. The buy-out contract did not include the New Zealand manufacturing facilities.
As of 2014, the business was operated by a subsidiary called "Nestlé Super Premium", headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. In 2016, it was one of the brands that Nestlé contributed to a new joint venture with R&R Ice Cream, called Froneri.
Production and distribution The main production site is in Switzerland. Halal production for the Middle East takes place at the Nestlé factory in Egypt.
The company has partnered licensing agreements in Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.
In February 2006, Nestlé Schöller announced a newly patented type of "conching" process. The conchier process uses temperature reduction and slow, constant two-wave stirring to develop microscopic ice crystals and bubbles as the ice cream freezes. Minimising the need for large ice crystals reduces the required fat content by 30 to 40%, so the process creates low-fat ice cream, but with a creamy consistency and intense taste. The process was used to reduce the fat content in Bourbon Vanilla, Chocolate Chips, Erdbeer (strawberry) Cream and Maple Walnuts flavors. Machinery at the Uelzen factory was upgraded at a cost of 5 to 6 million euros. In 2007, the conchier process was introduced to create "Decorative" category flavors with less than ten percent fat content: Cioccolata Straccietella, Caramel Brulee, Marzipan Chocolate and Chocolate Rum-Grape-Nut. This ice cream, in recent years, has shifted from sugar to glucose syrup in their ingredient list.
In July 2017, Emerald Foods (Australia) Pty Ltd. purchased the master franchise rights for the Mövenpick parlours in Australia from Peters Ice Cream. Peters continued as the Mövenpick distributor for other channels in Australia.
Contracted production
Canada In the 1990s, Mövenpick-branded products were made at plants in Simcoe, Ontario. Production was managed by Beatrice Foods, whose ice cream division was bought in 1994 by Good Humor-Popsicle (a child company of Unilever).
In 2001, Delicious Alternative Desserts Ltd. (DAD) received the contract to co-pack Mövenpick products in Canada, in packaging customised to the region. DAD was placed in receivership in 2002. Bankruptcy trustee KPMG continued limited production of Mövenpick at Stoney Creek Dairy, which was purchased by Better Beef Ltd. in February 2002. Better Beef was sold to Cargill Inc. in 2005, and the dairy was purchased by Creme Glacee Lambert in 2009, and closed in 2010.
Egypt In 2013, Nestlé upgraded their ice cream factory in Egypt, where Mövenpick ice creams are produced for export to Malaysia.
Germany Nestlé produces Mövenpick ice cream in Germany, but sold part of its licensing and production facilities for trade brands to ice cream manufacturer Rosen Eiskrem GmbH of Waldfeucht-Haaren in January 2007. The co-packing agreement and sale included plants in Nurnberg and Prenzlau. Nestlé Schöller remained at their Nurnberg headquarters, and retained their Uelzen plant.
New Zealand In September 1998, New Zealand-based Southern Fresh Milk Company received a $20 million 10-year contract from Mövenpick Asia-Pacific to produce and supply Mövenpick-branded ice cream to Asia and Australia. Southern Fresh was to create 11 ice cream flavors and 640,000 litres of ice cream annually. The contract did not include production or distribution of the desserts within New Zealand, as the importation and distribution contract was already allocated to Tip Top Foods, which was intended to span 1988 to 2006. When the contract was awarded to Southern Fresh, Tip Top published an advertisement to clarify that they continued to hold the New Zealand market contract.
The Southern Fresh contract was later expanded to a revised $60 million, increasing to 16 flavors and 2.25 million litres of ice cream each year. The extra funds allowed for the expansion of a manufacturing plant with a dedicated Mövenpick production area. Southern Fresh's contract allowed for sending the ice cream to Australia, Japan, and Singapore. Initial plans were to later export to South Korea, China, and Hong Kong. One of the ice cream flavors produced for the Japanese market was Green Tea in 100ml containers.
Southern Fresh purchased an additional factory in East Tamaki, Auckland, in April 2000, which raised concerns that production work would be taken from the Invercargill factory.
On 23 December 2000, 20 of the Southern Fresh workers at the Ettrick Street, Invercargill, factory received notice that their employee contracts would not be renewed. The contractors were temporarily employed to produce Mövenpick ice cream. One of the workers speculated in a Southland Times article that the redundancies were linked to quality control. Southern Fresh executives countered that the job changes were a result of technical problems at the factory and market fluctuations. They later stated that the problem was more about "presentation", despite Mövenpick itself supplying the packaging to the factory.
The 2001 opening of the Auckland plant overrode the existing Tip Top Foods contract with Mövenpick.
In April 2001, prior to Mövenpick's acquisition by Nestlé, executive Chris White moved from his Mövenpick Asia-Pacific chief executive role to a position at Nestlé. White had previously assured staff at the Mövenpick Invercargill factory that the Southern Fresh contract would not be impacted by a new Auckland factory.
In April 2001, newspaper articles stated that Mövenpick ceased buying ice cream from Southern Fresh for the Japanese market, but the orders had ceased since November 2000. A Mövenpick executive stated that the companies were "...working through issues...". A Mövenpick executive stated that there were quality problems, but a Southern Fresh executive disputed this, noting the Japanese recession and that Southern Fresh were being used as a scapegoat for Mövenpick's marketing difficulties in Japan. That same month, Southern Fresh dismissed 20 employees from the Invercargill factory as a result of the withdrawn Mövenpick orders. That same month, Southern Fresh stated in the media that they were owed millions of dollars by Mövenpick. There were arbitration meetings between Mövenpick and Southern Fresh in August 2001, which acknowledged that their contract lapsed in November 2000. In September 2001, Mövenpick stated that all issues between the parties had been resolved. In February 2002, Southern Fresh chief executive Alasdair McLachlan described the Mövenpick deal as "disastrous", identifying it as "Mövenpick's [contract] failure is what killed us.", in being the main contributing factor for Southern Fresh's significant loan, and later buyout, by dairy company Mainland. Mainland closed the Invercargill factory in July 2002.
At the time of the 2003 acquisition of Mövenpick by Nestlé, Chateau Creme Delight Ice Cream company continued to produce Mövenpick ice creams under license. The New Zealand rights were not included in the Nestlé contract, and Nestlé did not have their own production facilities in the country. Mövenpick retained the Chateau rights because it wanted to increase its presence in the Asia Pacific region. In October 2003, International Dairy Ventures (IDV) purchased the New Zealand operations of Chateau, including the Nestlé-licensed Mövenpick productions and the Mövenpick store in Mission Bay, Auckland.
Mövenpick products were later made by Emerald Foods, a company owned by Mövenpick until December 2003, when it was sold to the Emerald Group. In December 2005, Emerald Group CEO Diane Foreman noted a supply challenge, in that Emerald was contractually obliged to buy all raw materials from Swiss-based Mövenpick, to make licensed Mövenpick products. In late 2009, Emerald signed a contract with Mövenpick for a further four years.
The ice cream making subsidiary of the Emerald Group was then sold to Emerald Foods Group (HK) in April 2015.
Pakistan In the 1990s, Ambrosia International Limited (Pvt) (AIL) began a licensing agreement with Mövenpick to produce their branded ice creams in Pakistan. The JOFA Group has been the exclusive franchiser for the brand since 2002.
Saudi Arabia From the late 1980s until 2009, SADAFCO produced Mövenpick-branded products at plants in Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam, and Madinah. However, starting in 2011, Mohammed Khaled Alkhulaidi Trading Establishment ("MKKTE") became the exclusive franchiser of the brand in Saudi Arabia, importing Mövenpick ice cream products and distributing them to hotels and through different points of sale across the kingdom.
Sweden In 2011, Swedish ice cream manufacturer Triumf Glass introduced Mövenpick Classic flavors to the Swedish market in 900ml packaging. Flavors included Almond & Vanilla, Caramelita, Maple Walnut, Strawberry, Swiss Chocolate, and Vanilla Dream.
United States Mövenpick-branded ice cream was first produced in America in the late 1980s by Sunnyside Farms Dairy at a plant in Turlock, California.
Ice creams and sorbets +YearNew flavor/s launchedNotes1994 Creamy Plum Gingerbread1996 Piña Colada Coffee n' Cream Pecan Nut Kick (Scotch whiskey) Grapefruit FizzFlavors as part of the Mövenpick Specials range of alcoholic 500g tubs.2001 Peach & Wild Strawberry Apple Blackberry Banana & PassionfruitFlavors as part of the Summer Limited Edition, in one litre packs.2001 Gianduja chocolate White Chocolate Vanilla BrownieLimited edition flavors.2003 Chocolate Cherry Chocolate Nougat Chocolate TruffleThe Chocolate Truffle flavor won the export category in the 2003 New Zealand Ice Cream Awards.2004 Gingerbread Jamaica (rum and raisin)Part of the Winter limited edition in Finland.October 2004 Marzipan Chocolate Rum Grape NutRetail Mövenpick flavors were reclassified into categories of Classical, Fruity and Decorative. Classical category included the new flavor of Marzipan Chocolate, and existing flavors of Bourbon Vanilla and Chocolate Chip. Fruity category included Strawberry and Lemon Sorbet.