dairy Crest is eyeing a brand extension for Frijj as it seeks to double sales of the milkshake brand to £100m within five years.

This week, it announced that Frijj, launched in 1993, had broken through the £50m sales barrier for the first time and was now worth £50.4m [Nielsen 52 w/e 25 May 2012]. The company hoped to turn it into a £100m brand by 2017 through organic growth and NPD but was also considering brand extensions, revealed Nathan King, Dairy Crest director of brands. “The short to medium term is pretty set, but the medium into the long term could potentially involve line extensions into adjacent categories,” he said.

King would not be drawn on which categories Dairy Crest would consider taking Frijj into. However, yoghurts or chilled desserts would seem a natural fit as Dairy Crest is not currently active in those areas, and it would complete the company’s dairy portfolio, which includes milks, flavoured milks, cheese, creams, butters and spreads.

The £50m milestone had been passed “in no small part by the launch of Frijj The Incredible and how well that’s been received,” said King. The more indulgent Frijj The Incredible sub-range, launched in August 2011, has racked up £4.5m in sales, equating to 8.9% of Frijj sales [Nielsen].

A new milkshake flavour will join the Frijj range in the autumn, although Dairy Crest is keeping precise details under wraps.

A new CGI TV ad for Frijj will hit screens from Monday (16 July), in support of the brand’s current on-pack promotion offering two-for-one tickets to Thorpe Park.

Frijj is one of Dairy Crest’s current five ‘key’ brands, alongside Cathedral City, Country Life, Clover, and St Hubert Omega 3. However, the company is in the process of selling its St Hubert French spreads business.

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