Soft Serve at Baskin-Robbins
Posted: May 20, 2008
Baskin-Robbins is launching soft-serve ice cream this spring, a big step for the well-known ice cream parlor.
As summer approaches, the chain also wants a piece of one of ice cream’s few growth areas. Soft-serve sales topped $4.6 billion in 2006, up from $4.3 billion in 2005, the last years tracked by the International Dairy Foods Association.
It may be hard to swallow, but soft serve represents 70% of all ice cream servings, says NPD Group, the research firm. The soft-serve vanilla line will be Baskin-Robbins’ largest product rollout in decades, Kimmel says.
But after spending six decades telling the world that hand-scooped ice cream is its specialty, Baskin-Robbins walks a fine line trying to suddenly convince folks that it’s now a soft-serve specialist. The company has spent two years trying to modernize, including a redesign of its stores and logo. And now, along comes soft serve.