The Magnum Ice Cream Company has gained share in all of its global regions after a “strong start” to its key summer selling season helped it beat market expectations
The world’s largest ice cream company took €4.7bn (£4bn) in sales in its maiden first-half results as an independent company, as an extended European heatwave boosted volumes.
Organic sales growth hit 4.7% in the half year to 30 June 2026, balanced between a 2.5 percentage point increase in volumes and 2.2 point increase from pricing.
Magnum’s underlying profit grew with sales. Its first half adjusted EBIT grew 7.5% to €716m; EBITDA was up 3.1%, though the EBITDA margin shrank slightly thanks to the cost of Magnum’s transitional service agreements (TSAs) with former parent Unilever.
CEO Peter te Kulve attributed the group’s performance to “market-leading innovation and occasion-led demand creation”.
“Each of our four leading brands – Magnum, Ben & Jerry’s, Cornetto, and the Heartbrand – grew, with innovation across flavours and formats, exciting consumers and customers,” he said.
“Ben & Jerry’s grew mid-single-digit and had an outstanding second quarter with 9.2% growth. Yasso, our high-protein, low-calorie offering, continued to grow double-digit after its successful expansion from sticks to pints.”
Magnum’s Signature La Pistache, the company said, ranked as the top ice cream innovation in Europe, helping the Magnum brand win mid-single-digit growth.
The group’s bottom line will strengthen throughout the year, in line with previous guidance of a 40 to 60 basis point improvement to its adjusted EBITDA margin, Magnum said.
A €500m cost-cutting drive kicked off in 2024 resulted in €90m of savings in the first half, €70m of which was in its supply chain.
”We have continued to reduce waste, improve factory utilisation, and debottleneck our supply chain,” said Magnum.
Further recurring savings will come from Magnum’s transition away from its TSAs with Unilever. The group has now appointed six strategic partners what will form the “backbone” of its future technology stack.
”We are now entering a key phase of transformation, building our systems, processes and capabilities. All TSA exits planned for the first half of 2026 were concluded on time, and we continue working to exit remaining TSAs by the end of 2027,” the company said.
No comments yet