Ice cream is a luxury product most often bought on impulse and sold at an affordable price. The French are fond of ice cream – penetration levels are high – but there has been a tendency to regard it as a table-based dessert, or a seasonal staple during the Festive season, rather than a snack-type treat to be eaten in fine weather. The range of flavours and offerings now available as dessert ice creams is vast and impressive.

Eight out of ten French adults are ice cream eaters. The development of 'snack lines' – individual, wrapped, sticks, cones and bars – which can be bought in multipacks, kept in the freezer and eaten on almost any occasion has helped boost the market.

Ice cream is a luxury product most often bought on impulse and sold at an affordable price. The French are fond of ice cream – penetration levels are high – but there has been a tendency to regard it as a table-based dessert, or a seasonal staple during the Festive season, rather than a snack-type treat to be eaten in fine weather. The range of flavours and offerings now available as dessert ice creams is vast and impressive.

Eight out of ten French adults are ice cream eaters. The development of 'snack lines' – individual, wrapped, sticks, cones and bars – which can be bought in multipacks, kept in the freezer and eaten on almost any occasion has helped boost the market.

The countries examined within the Consumer Goods Intelligence series of reports are France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.