Food Manager

Butterfinger, Baby Ruth & 100 Grand Ice Cream Candy bars debut in USA. Indulgence is evolving, with layers of crunch and chew rising to the top of what consumers crave. Datassential's 2026 Trends Report names texture as one of this year's top "New Classics," reshaping how consumers think about indulgence. Now that shift is hitting grocery store freezer aisles. Wells Enterprises and Ferrero North America have collaborated to launch Butterfinger Ice Cream Candy Bar, Baby Ruth Ice Cream Candy Bar and 100 Grand Ice Cream Candy Bar products in the USA, bringing candy bar texture to real ice cream. These multisensory moments are defining snackability across food culture, social channels and everyday moments. "The ice cream bar category has long been defined by simplicity, including smooth coatings, uniform textures and straightforward formats," said Isabella Chia, chief marketing officer at Le Mars, Iowa-headquartered Wells Enterprises. "We didn't just translate a candy bar into a frozen format. We engineered each bar from the inside out, starting with the texture that made those candies iconic and building up from there with real ice cream and quality ingredients that deliver on every bite." Each offerings is built around the signature textural identity that has made its candy counterpart a cultural icon. Descriptions of the new products, each of which is sold in a pack of six at a suggested retail price of $5.99, follow: - Butterfinger Ice Cream Candy Bar features Butterfinger-flavored ice cream layered with the brand's crispy peanut-butter crunch and blanketed in a smooth chocolatey coating. - Baby Ruth Ice Cream Candy Bar offers chewy nougat-flavored ice cream packed with whole roasted peanuts and ribboned with flowing caramel, all encased in a decadent chocolatey shell. - 100 Grand Ice Cream Candy Bar delivers creamy caramel-flavored ice cream embedded with crispy crunchies and finished with an additional layer of rich caramel beneath a chocolatey shell. "These are brands with real equity and deeply devoted fans. Bringing them into the freezer aisle wasn't just a product decision. We saw an opportunity to meet fans in a new occasion, deepen their connection to brands they already love, and introduce them to a new generation of consumers who are discovering these icons for the first time," said Catherine Bertrac, senior vice president of marketing for the Kinder brand and FMC North America at Ferrero.

Trolli Gummi Pop Very Berry brings frozen gummi format to major grocery nationwide. Wells Enterprises announced on April 7, 2026 the launch of Trolli Gummi Pop Very Berry, the latest flavor in the Trolli Gummi Pop line. The product is now available at major grocery retailers nationwide including Kroger, Meijer, Albertsons, and Food Lion in multi-pack boxes of 10 at a suggested retail price of $5.99. The Very Berry flavor combines Berry Punch and Blue Raspberry in the brand's signature soft, frozen gummi format. According to Wells Enterprises' announcement, the Gummi Pop line launched in 2025 with Cherry Lemon and Grape Strawberry flavors and received strong consumer response, leading to the 2026 Very Berry addition. Wells Enterprises is the largest privately held ice cream manufacturer in the United States, founded in 1913, and produces more than 200 million gallons of ice cream per year. The company is part of the Ferrero Group, one of the global leaders in sweet packaged foods. Trolli Gummi Pop is not a frozen candy in the traditional sense. It is not a hard sugar shell with a gummi filling, and it is not a standard frozen novelty bar with candy pieces embedded in it. The product delivers the soft, gummi texture of a Trolli candy in a frozen format, maintaining that consistency at freezer temperatures. This is the technically distinctive aspect of the product. Achieving a soft, chewable gummi texture in a frozen product requires a formulation that resists the hardening effect of low temperatures. Standard gummi confections freeze into a firm, often brittle texture. The Gummi Pop formulation uses a different gelatin, humectant, and sugar alcohol balance to maintain elasticity and chewability when frozen. The result is a product that occupies a genuinely novel sensory position: frozen, but not icy; chewy, but not room temperature candy. The Very Berry SKU extends the existing Gummi Pop platform with Berry Punch and Blue Raspberry. Both are Trolli brand-signature flavor profiles with established consumer recognition. The dual-tone neon packaging maintains the visual identity of the broader Trolli candy shelf presence, connecting the frozen product to the established brand without requiring new consumer education. Wells Enterprises and Ferrero: the manufacturing scale behind the launch. The Trolli Gummi Pop line sits within Wells Enterprises' portfolio alongside Blue Bunny, Halo Top, Bomb Pop, and Blue Ribbon Classics. Wells operates manufacturing plants in Le Mars, Iowa, Dunkirk, New York, and Henderson, Nevada, and distributes products across all 50 states. The company employs nearly 4,000 people and is headquartered in Le Mars, which it bills as the "Ice Cream Capital of the World" as the largest manufacturer of ice cream in one location. The Ferrero Group acquisition of Wells Enterprises gives the Trolli Gummi Pop line access to Ferrero's global supply chain and distribution infrastructure. Trolli is a Ferrero confectionery brand. This means the Gummi Pop product sits at the intersection of Ferrero's candy expertise and Wells' frozen novelty manufacturing capability. That combination is unusual in the frozen food industry, where most players specialize in one or the other. Ryan Roznowski, Director of Refreshment Brands at Wells Enterprises, stated in the company's announcement: "The response to Trolli Gummi Pop last year was incredible. Trolli fans couldn't get enough of this never-before-seen frozen gummi treat. We had to come up with another evolution of that. We're taking fan favorite Trolli flavors and bringing them to freezers everywhere in a daring and vibrant way that only Trolli can pull off." Why it matters for frozen food manufacturers and confectionery ingredient suppliers. The frozen novelty category is evolving toward brand licensing and cross-category texture innovation. The traditional frozen novelty segment is crowded with bars, pops, sandwiches, and cups. These formats compete on price, portion size, and licensed character branding. Trolli Gummi Pop introduces a genuinely new texture format. It does not compete against an existing frozen product type because no equivalent product existed before it. For frozen food co-manufacturers evaluating new format development, the Gummi Pop model illustrates how confectionery brand licensing can create category-defining new SKUs that do not cannibalize existing frozen shelf space. Maintaining gummi texture at frozen temperatures requires specialized ingredient sourcing. Standard gummi confections use gelatin, glucose syrup, and citric acid in proportions optimized for room temperature consumption. Frozen gummi formulations require modification of the gelatin bloom strength, the ratio of glucose to fructose-based sweeteners, and the addition of humectants such as sorbitol or glycerin to depress the freezing point and maintain flexibility. For gelatin suppliers, glucose syrup producers, and specialty humectant distributors serving confectionery and frozen food co-manufacturers, the growth of the frozen gummi category creates a new application demand that requires inputs calibrated to lower temperature performance specifications. The Ferrero-Wells combination creates a rare dual-channel retail presence for a single brand family. Trolli products typically occupy the candy aisle. Trolli Gummi Pop occupies the frozen novelty section. The Very Berry launch deepens that dual-channel presence, giving the Trolli brand retail touchpoints in two separate shopping occasions and two separate in-store locations. For retailers managing category management across both candy and frozen, the Trolli Gummi Pop line raises the question of how to optimize cross-category brand visibility for a product that genuinely belongs in both sections. The $5.99 multi-pack pricing positions Gummi Pop as an accessible premium frozen novelty. A 10-count box at $5.99 represents a price per unit of approximately $0.60. This is competitive with standard frozen novelty bars but above the lowest-price commodity ice cream novelty tier. The pricing reflects the product's innovation premium without pushing into the specialty frozen segment where price sensitivity limits trial. For private label frozen novelty manufacturers evaluating comparable innovation, the Trolli Gummi Pop pricing architecture demonstrates that novel texture formats can command moderate premiums over conventional frozen novelty items without moving out of the mainstream grocery freezer case. FAQs. * What is Trolli Gummi Pop Very Berry? A frozen novelty product combining Berry Punch and Blue Raspberry flavors in Trolli's signature soft gummi texture, available in multi-pack boxes of 10 at a suggested retail price of $5.99 at Kroger, Meijer, Albertsons, Food Lion, and other major grocers nationwide. * What makes the texture different from regular frozen novelties? Trolli Gummi Pop maintains the soft, chewy gummi texture at freezer temperatures rather than freezing into a hard or icy consistency. According to Wells Enterprises, this is a first-of-its-kind frozen gummi sensory experience. * Who manufactures Trolli Gummi Pop? Wells Enterprises, Inc., the largest privately held ice cream manufacturer in the U.S., founded in 1913 and now part of the Ferrero Group. Wells produces more than 200 million gallons of ice cream annually across plants in Iowa, New York, and Nevada. * What flavors preceded Very Berry? The Trolli Gummi Pop line launched in 2025 with Cherry Lemon and Grape Strawberry before the 2026 addition of Very Berry. * Where can consumers find Trolli Gummi Pop products? At major grocery retailers nationwide and at TrolliGummiPops.com. About Source86. Trolli Gummi Pop Very Berry represents the expansion of a novel frozen confectionery format that combines Trolli's candy brand equity with Wells Enterprises' frozen novelty manufacturing scale. The product creates sourcing demand for temperature-stable gelatin systems, specialized humectants such as sorbitol and glycerin for freezing-point depression, sour acidulant inputs including malic and citric acid, and natural and artificial fruit flavor systems for berry-forward frozen applications. At Source86, Ingredient Brothers connect confectionery manufacturers, frozen food co-packers, and private label frozen novelty operators with trusted bulk and wholesale suppliers of gelatin, glucose syrup, sorbitol, citric acid, malic acid, and specialty fruit flavor concentrates that power innovative frozen confectionery development across mainstream grocery retail channels. Whether your production team is developing a new frozen gummi format, sourcing bulk humectants for temperature-stable confectionery applications, or building a co-manufacturing partnership for a branded or private label frozen novelty line, Source86 is your bridge to the right partners. Contact Source86 today to start your sourcing search.