Report Signals Growth against Industry Trend for Mackie’s

Mackie’s of Scotland Press releases

Mackie's PR photography

Luxury ice cream favourites, Mackie’s of Scotland, has bucked the trend of producers in its sector by recording a substantial increase in year on year sales.

Generating more than £13 million in domestic retail sales at the checkout, Mackie’s loyal customer base swelled over the most recent recorded 12 month period (up until end of January 2016), leading to an 8.3 per cent increase on 2014/15’s figures of £12 million.

As a result, the Aberdeenshire firm now has approximately 2 per cent of the total UK market share, on volume of ice cream sold.

These findings were published by Mintel, the world’s leading market intelligence agency, with the report detailing a notable dip in ice cream and dessert sales, across the UK – estimating a 6 per cent reduction in annual volume sales since 2011.

In the same report, leading manufacturers General Mills, Nestle and Mars all posted declines in both value and quantity sold, with market leader Unilever posting less that 1 per cent growth across both measurables.

Mac Mackie, one of three sibling owners and Director at Mackie’s of Scotland, said: “We are, of course, delighted to see continued growth and the number of UK customers enjoying Mackie’s ice cream growing.

“We’re starting to make progress, taking a few wee bites out of the pan-global big boys like Unilever and that’s heartening to see. Particularly as we still produce everything we need, from energy and packaging to the rich cream for our ice cream, at our ancestral farm in Aberdeenshire.”

Now producing over ten million litres of dairy ice cream a year, Mackie’s market surge is endemic of an upswing in luxury products doing well in the UK. While Unilever maintains a stronghold of the ice cream market, with four of the biggest five brands, it is their more upmarket brands, such as Magnum, Ben & Jerry’s lines faring best.

Mackie's of Scotland Cowshed Food and Drink PR photographyMac added: “It’s clear that consumers are moving away from mass produced impersonal ice cream and moving towards products made with care and attention, focussing on great flavours, locality and a smooth texture.”

This increase has corresponded with a substantial 20 per cent increase in volume sales at Mackie’s Westertown Farm near Inverurie.

Having recently added a dedicated £600,000 chocolate factory to its Aberdeenshire home farm, Mackie’s will be pleased to see the surge in their more traditional and established products coincide with substantial new contracts for its chocolate.

This has included substantial initial deals with Tesco and Sainsbury’s, with new domestic contracts including the Co-op coming on board in 2016.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary producing ice cream, Mackie’s of Scotland is continuing to develop new products for both domestic and international markets.

Having experimented with 30 new flavours at the most recent Royal Highland show, including the likes of bubblegum and caramel biscotti, a bumper crowd at the recent Royal Highland Show saw the Mackie’s stall sell out of newly created bacon, pancake and maple syrup flavoured ice cream – giving an indication of more new products to come.

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