Who Makes Magnum Ice Cream? (Brand, Quality + More)

Have you ever asked yourself or your friend who makes Magnum Ice Cream? Well, you are at the perfect place to find the answer to such a question.

Interestingly, Magnum ice cream has technically always been owned by Unilever, but it hasn’t always been manufactured by them. Instead, Magnum ice cream has an interesting history and has had multiple manufacturers in different countries.

So, who makes Magnum Ice Cream? Magnum ice cream is a Belgian brand that is now made by Unilever. It is sold within the Heartbrand products. Unilever has not always been the maker of Magnum ice cream and Nestle is also in the equation when answering who makes Magnum ice cream.

To learn about who manufacturers Magnum ice cream today, as well as who used to manufacture this popular ice cream brand, keep reading.

This article tells you all you need to know about manufacturing Magnum ice cream.

Who Makes Magnum Ice Cream?

Magnum ice cream is developed and produced by Unilever, an Anglo-Dutch company. Magnum ice cream belongs to Unilever’s Heartbrand line, which includes sticks, tubs, and bites of ice cream.

It is available in most countries, though Nestle owns the Magnum brand in certain countries.

Many other popular ice cream brands are manufactured by Unilever too. The main two companies that produce popular ice cream brands include Unilever and Nestle.

More than likely, the ice cream you eat is produced by one of these two multinational companies.

Read also: Who Makes The Best Ice Cream? (List, Quality, Reviews + More)

About Unilever

Unilever is a British consumer goods company with headquarters in London. It was founded in 1929, but it has quickly become one of the most successful companies in the world.

It has a revenue of €52.444 billion as of 2021.

This multinational company owns and produces many products in just about every industry. It produces food, cleaning solutions, purifiers, toothpaste, beauty, and personal care products. In total, Unilever owns over 400 brands.

For more organization, the company is organized into three divisions: food and refreshments, home care, and beauty and personal care.

Some of the most popular brands produced by Unilever include Dove, Magnum, Axe, and Persil. Needless to say, Unilever is a major player in most industries.

Even though Unilever produces so many top brands, it has not been immune to controversies. Many people protest Unilever because of its environmental record, as well as its controversies.

Unilever has experienced mercury contamination, salmonella contamination, price-fixing, and violence against striking workers.

Despite these controversies, Unilever remains the top producer of ice cream and one of the main players in multinational manufacturing.

Read also: Who Makes Magnum Chocolate? (All You Need To Know)

Has Unilever Always Made Magnum Ice Cream?

Magnum ice cream has not always been produced by Unilever. Initially, Magnum was produced by the Frisko brand in Aarhus, Denmark.

However, ice cream was developed in Sheffield, the UK in the late 1980s. It was the technical director of Frisko who made this ice cream.

By 1988, Magnum was being produced for the UK. The original Magnum Classic was vanilla on a stick that was covered in chocolate coating. However, actual chocolate could not withstand the freezing temperatures needed to make this bar, which meant a form of chocolate was developed.

By 1994, Frisko created Magnum ice cream cones. In 2002, the brand also began selling ice cream sandwiches. Today, there are many varieties of Magnum ice cream that people enjoy all around the globe.

The Transition To Unilever

In 2002, Unilever began producing Magnum ice cream instead. This did not happen because Frisko sold Magnum. Instead, Frisko had actually been acquired by Unilever far before the creation of Magnum. Back in the 60s, Unilever bought out major companies, such as Frisko.

By the time Magnum was created, Frisko was still owned by Unilever, but it produced the ice cream on behalf of Unilever.

When 2002 rolled around, Frisko transitioned to only selling and producing ice cream in Belgium, which meant Unilever took over producing Magnum for multinational sales.

To this day, Unilever still produces Magnum. It also owns Magnum, as well as many other ice cream brands, making Unilever the number one ice cream producer in the world.

What About Nestle?

Technically speaking, there is one exception to what we’ve been saying so far. Nestle has also owned Magnum at the same time Unilever has, but only in Greece.

Between 2005 and 2006, Nestle owned the Magnum name brand in Greece. This occurred because Nestle acquired Delta Ice Cream.

As a result, Unilever ice cream had to go by the name Magic, but this only applied to Greece.

Even though Nestle is not an owner of Magnum elsewhere, Nestle is still a major player when discussing Magnum. As you know, Nestle produces a number of other products similar to Magnum ice cream.

Unilever has had to strategically create its marketing plans in order to separate Magnum ice cream from Nestle products.

Final Thoughts

As of 2022, Magnum ice cream is owned, produced, and manufactured by Unilever. Unilever manufacturers Magnum ice cream for countries all around the globe, with the exception of Greece.

In Greece, the Magnum brand is owned by Nestle instead.

The interesting fact of it all is that Unilever has technically always owned Magnum, but it did not start manufacturing the ice cream until 2002.

Between the 80s and 2000s, it was produced by Frisko, the creator of the ice cream. Only when Frisko went to Belgium exclusively did Unilever takeover Magnum creation.

For the time being, there are no rumors about Unilever selling the Magnum brand.

Because Unilever is the number one ice cream manufacturer in the world, there isn’t much competition for the brand. Nestle is the only main competition, but Unilever still beats them out.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unilever