Hemglass tried sweetened fibres in 2019 – how did it turn out?

The last sum­mers in Sweden have been extreme in many ways. The sus­tained heat took ice cream sales to high levels.

For 2020, there are no finan­cial state­ments yet, but sales for 2019 exceed­ed all expectations.

– We’re glad. At the same time, we were tak­en by sur­prise. The weath­er, as well as sales, made it a record sum­mer. We did not think it was pos­si­ble to beat the sales fig­ures for 2018, says Anders Granath, busi­ness devel­op­er at Hemglass.

Attentive to customer feedback

But the increase in sales can be attrib­uted to more things than the fine weath­er, says Anders Granath.

– We’re doing the right things. Among oth­er things, it is about our mar­ket­ing efforts, and that peo­ple con­sume ice cream at home, but also that we launch prod­ucts that our con­sumers demand. We are very pleased with the cus­tomer feed­back, he says. 

Hemglass is a com­pa­ny that lis­tens care­ful­ly to its cus­tomers. When a prod­uct is no longer suf­fi­cient­ly attrac­tive to con­sumers, it is clear­ly vis­i­ble in the sales fig­ures. The prod­uct is then removed from the prod­uct range.

A new beginning for ice cream without added sugar

Hemglass pre­vi­ous­ly offered ice cream with­out added sug­ar. But there was lit­tle inter­est. The prod­uct was removed from the range and there was no replace­ment. However, In the last cou­ple of years, demand has start­ed to build up. Therefore, in 2019, Hemglass decid­ed to offer prod­ucts with a new solu­tion for sug­ar reduction.

The new solu­tion is sweet­ened fibres from Bayn Solutions. The result was a fam­i­ly-friend­ly spe­cial mix with clas­sic flavours that appeals to many con­sumers. The selec­tion con­sists of straw­ber­ry cone, a vanil­la ice cream with pear ice cov­er, and choco­late and vanil­la ice cream in a cup and on a stick.

Part of the regular product range

What is the ver­dict on the sug­ar-reduced ice cream? We asked Anders Granath the ques­tion in late sum­mer 2019. He then replied:

– It has been well received. Sales are at the lev­el we expect­ed, that is, it fol­lows our plan and bud­get fore­cast, says Anders Granath.

We also asked what the future holds in store for the sug­ar-reduced range.

– Our Special Mix is a prod­uct that is espe­cial­ly appre­ci­at­ed by peo­ple who want to eat good ice cream but with­out added sug­ar. If sales con­tin­ue to fol­low our plan, it will become a stan­dard prod­uct in Hemglass’s range, says Anders Granath.

And that’s exact­ly what the ice cream with Bayn’s sweet­ened fibres has become: A stan­dard prod­uct includ­ed in the reg­u­lar 2020 range. We think that’s great!

– The tri­al sales received pos­i­tive reac­tions from con­sumers. We know that sug­ar is a flavour enhancer, and if you remove the sug­ar from a prod­uct, it is more dif­fi­cult to empha­size the taste of oth­er ingre­di­ents. We have not received any com­ments on the taste – and that is a good ver­dict, says Anders Granath.