Behind the brand: Wall’s ice cream serving happiness for 100 years

How it started

In 1913 an entrepreneurial butcher called Thomas Wall decided to counteract the summer dip in sales of sausages by branching out into selling ice cream. World War 1 put his idea on hold. But when Unilever purchased the business in 1922 and large commercial freezers began arriving from the US, the Wall’s ice cream brand was brought to life.

Demand for Wall’s saw vendors travelling the streets of London to sell ice cream via horse and cart. It wasn’t long before bike deliveries were added to the mix. By 1939, Wall’s fleet of tricycle salespeople was 8,500 strong.

Fast forward 20 years and construction began for Wall’s first state- of-the-art factory. In 1962, at full capacity, it produced 90,000 gallons of ice cream each day. And it’s still in operation today, making 4 million Cornetto ice creams every week and more than 1 billion ice creams every year.

The brand has come a long way from selling vanilla ices on the streets of London. Today, Wall’s sells more than 40 brands, many of them local to specific markets. For more information, read the ‘It might surprise you to learn’ section below. What’s more, its ice creams are sold in 52 countries around the world.

How it’s going

There are five Unilever brands in the top ten bestselling ice creams in the world. Two of them – Cornetto and Carte D’Or – are part of Wall’s Heartbrand portfolio.

In 2021, sales from Unilever’s Ice Cream portfolio reached €6.9 billion in turnover, with underlying sales growth of 5.7%. Wall’s was one of three €1 billion ice cream brands.

In Q3 2022, the year Wall’s celebrated its 100th birthday, underlying sales growth for Unilever’s Ice Cream business group was 13.2%, with 12.0% from price and 1.0% from volume.

Today, out-of-home purchases still play a significant part in ice cream sales, but the Covid pandemic has opened new quick commerce channels to supply ice cream to consumers.

Unilever’s Ice Cream Now division caters for in-home eating by rapidly delivering our products to consumers in 35 countries.

Getting ice cream to consumers fast and without spoiling has been achieved through partnerships with delivery services such as Grubhub and Uber Eats, alongside tapping into Wall’s existing network of freezer cabinets in local stores and restaurants. This network works to ensure brands such as Carte D’Or go from an online order to delivery to the consumer’s doorstep in less than 30 minutes.

In 2021, this combination of speed and response to consumer demand saw this part of our ice cream business grow by 60%.

The purpose that powers it

There is something for everyone in the Wall’s ice cream portfolio, and that breadth of choice has the ability to drive happiness among all age groups, as well as melt down barriers between different communities.

Wall’s is working hard to leverage that. To build a happier and more inclusive world, one lick at a time.

Alongside partners such as Symrise and Giz and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Wall’s is working with smallholder farmers to improve yields and livelihoods. Their work has reached 40,000 people in 9,000 households, across 76 villages in the Sava region of Madagascar that help supply its vanilla requirements.

What’s more, every brand it sells in its kids’ range of ice creams adheres to Wall’s Responsibly Made for Kids promise.

The promise is based on three pillars, designed to help parents and care-givers make informed choices for their children. These are Responsible Communication through advertising; Responsible Selling with our Responsibly Made for Kids mark; and Responsible Development, which includes an undertaking that every ice cream in our kids’ range has no more than 110 calories and a maximum of 12 grams of sugar per portion and 3 grams of saturated fat.

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