From The Times – view article online
May 25, 2009

Britain’s biggest independent ice-cream maker is returning to its Italian roots.

Frank Frederick got out of the ice-cream van business because, he says, he got fed up with getting into fights – not the sort of image you associate with hot summer days in the park or by the sea, dribbles of vanilla melting down a cone and over your fingers, but this is a competitive industry. Tempers can rise in tandem with the mercury.

It is not the sort of message, either, that would suggest that here is a man ready to slug it out, head to head, with some of the grocery world’s biggest hitters, the likes of Walls, Unilever and Häagen Dazs. But the boss of Frederick’s, Britain’s biggest independent ice-cream maker, is doing just that and his chosen battleground is the deceptively smooth, chilled world of luxury ice-cream.

Named Antonio Federici, after Mr Frederick’s grandfather, who came to England from Italy in 1896 and set up an ice-cream company in St Helen’s, Lancashire, the new Frederick’s brand is an attempt to reproduce the homemade gelato ice-creams sold in the family’s home town of Bedonia, near Parma. The brand was launched exclusively in Sainsbury’s two months ago but Frederick’s is hoping that eventually it could rival Unilever’s Ben & Jerry’s and Carte D’or or Häagen Dazs.

“We have got two massive US brands in this country – Häagen Dazs and Ben & Jerry’s. Both are owned by multinationals and we want to take them on with this brand, which is slightly different and I believe better quality,” Mr Frederick said.

“I get excited by doing things better and different and taking on the big boys. That’s the buzz. I might come a cropper, but that’s life.”

There seems little danger of that. Alex Beckett, of The Grocer, the trade journal, says that Frederick’s is already enjoying success in a booming ice-cream market. “Federici looks good,” he said. “It looks premium and there is definitely room for a new player in the market which positions itself above Carte D’or and Häagen Dazs.”

Frederick’s specialises at present in producing branded ice-cream under licence for Cadbury’s and lollies for Del Monte, the fruit brand, as well as most of the leading supermarkets’ own-label choc-ices. At present the fastest-growing part of the business is the Cadbury’s branded ice-creams: “We are aiming to take on Walls and their Magnum products,” Mr Frederick said. “I’m highly aggressive and we are like David and Goliath.”

Last year, dominated as it was by a dismal, damp summer, not ice-cream weather, was tough. The company made a £900,000 loss, largely because a venture into manufacturing tubs of ice-cream for the supermarkets resulted in a price war with R&R, a rival. After selling off its tub equipment to R&R, Frederick’s expects to make a profit of £1.5 million this year.

When he first took charge of the business in the 1970s, aged just 25, it was all about ice-cream vans. His first entrepreneurial move was to begin importing ice-lollies from Ireland, a decision that coincided with the long, hot summer of 1976 – but the real turning point was when Frederick’s invested in a machine that made choc-ices. The company now claims to be the largest producer of choc-ices in the world, making them for all the supermarkets.

Mars approached Mr Frederick in the late 1980s to help to develop its ice-cream range, which he also manufactured for the first year, before the brand took off and Mars set up its own factory. He then teamed up with Cadbury’s and the brand has built up sales of £30 million from only £3 million in the 11 years since Frederick’s won the licence. Indeed, since stepping in to lead the family business, which is owned 50-50 with his younger brother Philip, Mr Frederick has increased sales from £60,000 to just over £40 million.

Perhaps it is the fear of being dumped by a key licence partner that has driven Mr Frederick to develop his own brand. He admits that Federici is partly an insurance policy, but points out that the licence arrangements have been lucrative for Cadbury’s and Del Monte and so there is no reason for a change.

Mr Frederick says that his main dream is to take on Walls, Britain’s biggest ice-cream brand: “There is one brand which dominates the supermarkets and corner shops and they should have a significant challenger. The plan is to keep growing the business. I’m not a professional manager, I am an ice-cream van driver who’s made good and I want to be a serious No 2 to Walls.”

That doesn’t sound like the talk of someone who wants to walk away from another fight over ice-cream.

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