In the last year the British population bought 312 million litres of ice cream, costing £601m. While the actual volume of ice cream bought was marginally down this year compared to last year, we actually spent 5% more money on it. These trends are largely driven by a shift away from standard ice cream into premium ice cream. Value sales of standard ice cream have declined 10%, while those of premium ice cream have increased by 10%. Also, among handheld multipacks, the increased appeal of filled cones and cups/tubs has helped drive growth in the ice cream category, although this has been coupled with a large decline in adult lollies sales. The ice cream sector is dominated by own label and Wall's ice cream. The next largest manufacturers are Masterfoods, Frederick's Dairies (which makes Cadbury's ice cream), Richmond Frozen Foods, Mackie's, Häagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry's. These six manufacturers only account for a fraction of volume sales. However, it is these smaller manufacturers, which make a range of premium and niche products, that are driving growth in the sector. The most successful of these manufacturers, Frederick's and Ben & Jerry's, have increased sales by 65% and 82% respectively. As with frozen food sales in general, the top four supermarkets (Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Safeway) and Iceland account for more than 70%. Of these five supermarkets, Sainsbury and Safeway significantly overtrade in ice cream compared with their frozen food sales in general. {{FOCUS SPECIALS }}