New Products Launched in Competition Ahead of Summer Peak Season
Return of 2030s Who Left for Calorie and Health Management
Ice Cream Market, Which Saw Declining Consumers Due to Low Birthrate, Revives After a Long Time
As the summer peak season for ice cream approaches, the curtain has risen on the 'Zero (ZERO)' competition. Lotte Wellfood's 'Screwbar·Jawsbar 0kcal,' launched last April, has taken the market by storm, and Binggrae is striking back with its bestseller 'Dowisanyang Zero Sugar.' With the domestic ice cream market melting away due to a declining birthrate and shrinking main consumer base, new consumers are entering the market, creating a lively atmosphere.
According to the food industry on the 2nd, Binggrae is launching Dowisanyang Zero Sugar on this day. Although it contains some milk fat and is not 0kcal, it significantly reduces calories by using alternative sweeteners instead of sugar.
By releasing the zero version of its bestseller Dowisanyang, Binggrae plans to shake up the zero ice cream market dominated by Lotte Wellfood. So far, it has launched Powercap Zero and convenience store-exclusive Polaro Coffee Zero Sugar, but these were insufficient to compete with Lotte Wellfood. Therefore, Binggrae decided to zero out Dowisanyang, which has annual sales of 15 billion KRW, and start full-scale competition. Along with this, it plans to launch Saenggyultanggyul Zero Sugar, a 0kcal product without milk fat.
Binggrae's competitor is 'Jokpak (Jawsbar·Screwbar·Watermelonbar) 0kcal.' The Jawsbar·Screwbar 0kcal, launched last April, sold 7.2 million units within a month and is now approaching 20 million units sold after three months. A Lotte Wellfood official said, "Jawsbar·Screwbar 0kcal is the most explosively popular product among our ice cream products released in the past 10 years," adding, "The consumption rate is much faster than expected, so we are increasing factory operation rates."
Lotte Wellfood recently released 'Seedless Watermelonbar 0kcal' amid the 0kcal ice cream craze. It is said that consumer requests for the product poured in through the website, SNS, and customer center. The Seedless Watermelonbar achieves 0kcal by removing the chocolate-coated peanuts and using natural sweeteners instead of sugar.
Notably, the main buyers of zero ice cream are not the traditional consumers such as children or teenagers but those in their 20s and 30s and older. Those who had left the ice cream market after childhood for calorie or health management reasons are returning to the market as zero ice cream products are launched one after another.
In fact, according to Lotte Wellfood, there has been almost no cannibalization following the launch of Screwbar·Jawsbar 0kcal. Cannibalization refers to a new product launched by a company negatively affecting sales by encroaching on the territory of existing products. This means that the existing Screwbar·Jawsbar buyers and the Screwbar·Jawsbar 0kcal buyers were different groups. A Lotte Wellfood official said, "It is analyzed that consumers aged 30 and above, who had left the ice cream market due to calorie concerns, are returning to the market with the launch of 0kcal products, creating new sales."
The zero ice cream craze has recently revitalized the domestic ice cream market, which had been melting away for years. The ice cream market peaked at around 2 trillion KRW in the 2010s but has been gradually shrinking due to a decrease in the main consumer base caused by the low birthrate. It fell to around 1.2 trillion KRW in 2021 but recovered to about 1.4 trillion KRW last year due to the heatwave, though it is still in decline. An industry insider said, "With the growing healthy pleasure (helthypleasure) trend combined with the expansion of zero ice cream lineups and the forecast of hot weather this year, domestic ice cream companies are expected to achieve solid results in the second and third quarters."
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