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Not to be confused with Bryers or Dreyer's. This article is about the ice cream brand. For the brand of model horses, see Breyer Animal Creations. For the singular for the plural, see Breyer (disambiguation).
 Brand logo | |
| Product type | Frozen dessert |
|---|---|
| Owner | Unilever |
| Country | United States |
| Introduced | 1866; 158 years ago (1866) |
| Previous owners | Kraft Foods Inc. |
| Website | breyers |
Breyers is an ice cream and frozen dessert brand with headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Since 1993, Breyers has been owned and managed by the British conglomerate, Unilever. Founded in 1866, Breyers is the oldest manufacturer of ice cream in the United States.
Breyers makes products described as ice cream or as frozen dairy desserts. Its products range from traditional dairy desserts to those for specialty diet concerns, such as sugar-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan.
Breyers is one of the ten best-selling ice cream brands globally, and was fourth among American brands with sales of $498 million in 2022.
History
In 1866, William A. Breyer began to produce and sell ice cream in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The ice cream was hand-cranked and made from cream, sugar, fruit, and nuts. He first sold it to his neighbors from his home, and later via horse and wagon on the streets of Philadelphia as demand for the product grew. By 1882, Breyer had five ice cream shops and a delivery service for the product. He opened a wholesale manufacturing plant in 1896. Breyer's Ice Cream Company was incorporated in 1908. By 1918, Breyers produced one million gallons of ice cream annually.
Breyers Ice Cream Company was sold to the National Dairy Products Corporation/Sealtest in 1926. In 1930, National Dairy purchased the company that later become known as Kraft by 1975.
Kraft sold its ice cream brands to Unilever in 1993, while retaining the rights to the name for yogurt products.
In 1993, Unilever merged Breyers ice cream with Gold Bond and Good Humor ice cream to create the Good Humor-Breyers division. Unilever closed its last Breyers plant in Philadelphia in 1995. The Good Humor-Breyers headquarters were moved from Green Bay, Wisconsin and Oakville, Ontario to Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey and Toronto in 2007.
Part of the Unilever ice cream group, Breyers is among the world's top-10 most valued ice cream brands. With $498 million in 2022 sales, Breyers was fourth among American brands.
Products
Breyers manufactures its frozen desserts to be either "original ice cream" or "frozen dairy dessert". Some 60% of Breyers products are ice cream and 40% are frozen dairy desserts.
Breyers also manufactures products for consumers with specialty diets, such as sugar-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, non-GMO, lactose-free, and "CarbSmart" for people preferring low-carbohydrate desserts.
Breyers groups its products in three flavor categories that include Classics (made with milk and cream with natural colors and flavors), Better For You desserts (manufactured to be low in calories with lower carbohydrate content and no sugar added for flavor), and Cookies & Candies (which contain pieces of cookies or branded candies).
Ice cream
Founded in 1866, Breyers is the oldest manufacturer of ice cream in the United States.
Breyers ice cream products are made from milk, cream, sugar, tara gum, and flavors derived from natural sources, such as vanilla.
Frozen dairy dessert
Unilever claims that Breyers frozen dairy dessert products are made to be different from standard ice cream, stating they have smoother texture, less fat, and lower calories.
Breyers frozen dairy desserts are manufactured with skim milk, corn syrup (or maltitol syrup), sugar or a sugar substitute, polydextrose, glycerin, and various other ingredients that may include whey, carob bean gum, guar gum, carrageenan, and added micronutrients.
Consumer concerns and feedback
In 2013, Breyers introduced frozen desserts made with food additives (section above) that were intended to create smooth, low-calorie products. However, the new desserts evoked complaints by some consumers who were accustomed to the traditional "all-natural" Breyers ice cream. A 2013 book indicated that some flavors of Breyer's ice cream contained propylene glycol as an additive to make ice cream easier to scoop. As of 2024, the ingredients list of individual Breyers products indicates that propylene glycol is no longer used as an additive.
Discontinued yogurt
The yogurt was manufactured under license from Unilever at an upstate New York facility until the licensing agreement was terminated and the Breyers Yogurt line was discontinued in April 2011. Catterton continued to produce YoCrunch yogurt but without the Breyers co-branding until it sold the company in August 2013 to Group Danone.
Confusion with Dreyer's
In the Western United States and Texas, Breyers ice cream is sometimes confused with Dreyer's ice cream. Henry Breyer founded Breyers in 1908, while William Dreyer and Joseph Edy co-founded Edy's Grand Ice Cream in 1928 in Oakland, California.
The root of the confusion dates to 1953 when "Edy's Grand Ice Cream" was changed to "Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream". Seeking to eliminate the confusion this created, Dreyer's changed its brand name in the home market of Breyers from "Dreyer's Grand" back to "Edy's Grand" in 1981. Around that same time, Breyers had begun an expansion toward the West Coast — the home market of Dreyer's — and by the mid-1980s, was distributing ice cream throughout the western United States and Texas. Unlike Dreyer's, Breyers kept its brand name nationally, and as a result, both Breyers and Dreyer's can be found on store shelves in the western United States and Texas.
See also
References
- ^ "Breyers". Unilever. 2024. Retrieved 19 November 2024.
- ^ "About Breyers History". Breyers. 2024. Retrieved 19 November 2024.
- ^ "History of Good Humor-Breyers Ice Cream Company". Fundinguniverse.com. Unilever. 1996. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
- ^ Riddle, Holly (2 February 2023). "The Untold Truth Of Breyers". Mashed. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
- ^ Ziady, Hanna (19 March 2024). "Ben & Jerry's and Magnum will form the core of an $8 billion ice cream company". CNN. Retrieved 18 November 2024.
- ^ Berk, Brian (22 November 2022). "2022 State of the Industry: Ice cream category sees bright future ahead". Dairy Foods. Retrieved 19 November 2024.
- Amy Ettinger (27 June 2017). Sweet Spot: An Ice Cream Binge Across America. Penguin Publishing Group. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-101-98420-8.
- "Breyers Ice Cream sign salesman's catalog, 1948". Duke University Library. Retrieved 26 November 2024.
- ^ Ivey, Dave. "Ice Cream Factory Closing After 128 Years; 240 Jobs Melting Away". The Associated Press. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
- Goff, H. Douglas; Hartel, Richard W. (2013). Ice Cream. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-4614-6096-1. Retrieved 25 July 2024.
- Janofsky, Michael (9 September 1993). "Unilever to Gain Breyers In Kraft Ice Cream Deal". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
- "One Unilever". CSP Daily News. 16 October 2007. Retrieved 2 December 2024.
- "Our Compass Organisation: introducing Unilever's five new Business Groups". Unilever. 7 October 2022. Retrieved 2 December 2024.
- Ziady, Hanna (10 November 2020). "This company conquered the ice cream market. Home delivery is the final frontier". CNN. Retrieved 2 December 2024.
- ^ "Breyers - All Flavors". Breyers. 2024. Retrieved 19 November 2024.
- ^ Demas, Alex (21 May 2024). "Claims That Breyers Doesn't Sell 'Real' Ice Cream Are False". The Dispatch. Retrieved 10 November 2024.
- Braun Davison, Candace (9 August 2016). "11 Things You Should Know Before Buying Breyers Ice Cream". Delish. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
- "Birthday Blast, Breyers Frozen Dairy Dessert per 100 g". FoodData Central, US Department of Agriculture. 28 October 2021. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
- Barry, Dan (15 April 2013). "Ice Cream's Identity Crisis". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 November 2024.
- Zinczenko, David (31 December 2013). Eat It to Beat It!: Banish Belly Fat-and Take Back Your Health-While Eating the Brand-Name Foods You Love!. Random House Publishing Group. p. 175. ISBN 978-0-345-54794-1.
- North Lawrence Dairy Done Archived 2011-01-27 at the Wayback Machine, Watertown Daily Times, January 18, 2011
- "Danone acquires YoCrunch, a mix-in toppings specialist, to support continued yogurt growth in the USA". Finance.danone.com. August 2013. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
- "Danone Buys YoCrunch Yogurt-Topping Maker to Grow in U.S." Bloomberg.com. August 2013.
- Gellene, Denise (19 June 1986). "East vs. West in Ice Cream Fight: Breyers' Attempt to Scoop Dreyer's Breeds Confusion". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
- ^ "Dreyer's: Our Story". IceCream.com. 2023. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
