Covid-19 is melting the profits of ice cream companies

Is there any way to refreeze it? 

Nazneen Islam Jabeen

July 12, 2020

The ongoing covid-19 lockdown has disrupted the supply chain of many food, snacks and
beverage companies. Among them, ice-cream companies are one of the worst sufferers of this
continuous lockdown. 

How do a school going kid or teen can pass a warm working day without getting enthralled by
the creamy ice peak? During a normal year, from February to June, most people would prefer to
enjoy their hot summer days with a pleasurable and delighted scoop of ice cream. But back to
Covid-19 days, everything has changed. 

In China, most of the manufacturing companies stop their production from the very beginning of
2020. Later, in March and February, companies in many other countries of the world have bound
to close their factories partially or in a whole. As a result, people did not get enough food on
time, and sometimes even things were stocked out. Besides these issues, ice cream companies
have faced another different threat from its' consumers. 

Some people started believing that ice cream consuming can spread the coronavirus.
Unfortunately, the rumor has spread fast along with the rising in mercury of the barometer. There
has been massive psychological damage after this rumor spread like wildfire through social
media. This blow has come at the demanding season of ice cream consumers. The rumor is
further strengthened because most of the symptoms of Covid-19 are similar to the symptoms of a
common cold or cough. Though WHO (World Health Organization) has clarified that there is no
relation between spreading coronavirus and consuming ice cream.

Here in Bangladesh, ice cream vendors became helpless as their paddle has stopped. As their
main consumers were school going kids, teens and adult young and they were home locked.
Besides, parents prohibited them from consuming ice cream. Consequently, ice cream vendors
rolled their hand from the ice-cream carts and went back to the villages.

Besides this psychological damage, Igloo, the market leader faced another physical disruption of
its’ supply chain. It sales ice cream through street vendors and small retail shops. These sources
of getting profits were not available due to lockdown. Other ice cream companies also echoed
the same. Even they missed some top-selling days of the year like 21st February, Pahela
Boishakh, 26th March, Eid day and other festival days.

To embrace the new normal opportunities, ice cream companies have started marketing and
selling ice creams through online platforms. But to restore peoples’ tempting mood for
consuming ice cream like before, Gemelli, a French toothsome ice cream company, has brought
new innovation in its’ ice cream. It has introduced healthier and natural ice cream instead of
obesity. This new ice cream is low in fat as it is made of semi-skimmed fresh milk instead of
heavy fat cream. Besides, some companies have given their freezer to store other food items.
Others have donated to the Covid-19 fund. Now is the time to wait and see if ice cream
companies can get back their consumer’s ambrosial mood and turn their molten profits into a
hard peak of frozen ice.