Cadbury is making Wispa a chillier choccie choice this summer by taking the brand into retail ice cream for the first time.

Wispa Ice Cream bars (rsp: £1.25 per 80ml bar) will hit freezers this month, with a tub format scheduled for later this year.

The bars are manufactured by Frederick's Dairies and feature chocolate-flavoured ice cream with chunks of Wispa inside.

The company described the ice cream centre as light in texture, while the chocolate coating contains a "very specific" blend of cocoa, said Frederick's MD David Taylor.

"Cadbury has been very protective about the whole launch and they wanted us to give Wispa ice cream a moreish quality," said Taylor. "It's going to be a surefire hit as people have been wanting a Wispa ice cream for years. The trade is going berserk and although it isn't yet available to consumers we have already had to step up production to meet demand."

Although Cadbury's leading Flake ice cream launched 12 years ago, Wispa was expected to match its Cadbury stablemate in terms of distribution, said Taylor. He expected the Wispa launch to help Cadbury leapfrog Mars this year as the UK's second biggest supplier of impulse ice creams, behind Unilever.

"Wispa puts us on a different planet to the men from Mars!" added company founder Frank Frederick.

In addition to Wispa, Frederick's is introducing a five-strong range of 125ml cups under Cadbury brands such as Crunchie and Dairy Milk Caramel this month (rsp: £1.49).

Wispa is already available as a McFlurry ice cream ­flavour in McDonald's.