Wall's is a British

ice cream Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as str ...

and

frozen dessert Frozen dessert is a dessert made by freezing liquids, semi-solids, and sometimes even solids. They may be based on flavored water (shave ice, ice pops, sorbet, snow cones), on fruit purées (such as sorbet), on milk and cream (most ice creams), o ...

brand in

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

owned by

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...

and is part of the

Heartbrand This is a list of brands owned by the British multinational consumer goods company Unilever. Unilever's billion euro brands These brands have annual sales of one billion euros or more: * Axe/Lynx *Dove *Omo/Persil * Heartbrand (Wall's) ice ...

global frozen dessert brand. Wall's also owns the rights to the Mr. Whippy soft-serve ice cream mix.

History

Wall's was founded in 1786 by Richard Wall, when he opened a butcher's stall in St James's Market, London. In the 1900s the business was led by Richard's grandson Thomas Wall II. Every year the company had to lay off staff in the summer as demand for its sausages, pies and meat fell, so in 1913 Thomas Wall II conceived the idea of making ice cream in the summer to avoid those lay-offs; the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

meant that his idea was not implemented until 1922. Following his retirement in 1920, Thomas Wall II created his Trust for the "encouragement and assistance of educational work and social service". Today, the Trust continues to assist in these areas by providing grants to individuals and organisations. By 1922 the business had been jointly bought by

Lever Brothers Lever Brothers was a British manufacturing company founded in 1885 by two brothers: William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), and James Darcy Lever (1854–1916). They invested in and successfully promoted a new soap-making p ...

and

Margarine Unie Naamloze Vennootschap Margarine Unie (English: Margarine Union Limited) was a Dutch company formed in 1927 in Oss by the merger of four margarine companies, Antoon Jurgens United, Van den Bergh's, Centra, and Schicht's. Margarine Unie was the dom ...

. Maxwell Holt was put in charge and he revived the idea of producing ice cream, with near instant success. Ice cream production commenced in 1922 at a factory in

Acton, London Acton () is a town and area in west London, England, within the London Borough of Ealing. It is west of Charing Cross. At the 2011 census, its four wards, East Acton, Acton Central, South Acton and Southfield, had a population of 62,480, a ...

. In 1959, Wall's doubled capacity by opening a purpose built ice cream factory in

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

, England. There is a garage on the corner of Aultone Way and Angel Hill in

Benhilton Benhilton is a suburban parish in north Sutton, Greater London. It is dominated by All Saints Church, which is a Grade II* listed building designed by Samuel Sanders Teulon in a Gothic Revival style and opened in 1863. It also containAll Saint ...

Sutton, London Sutton is the principal town in the London Borough of Sutton in South London, England. It lies on the lower slopes of the North Downs, and is the administrative headquarters of the Outer London borough. It is south-south west of Charing Cross ...

, built in about 1913 and still in use today, which was originally used for the storing of the 'Stop Me and Buy One' bicycles of Thomas Wall's business.

Ice cream

Unilever continues to use the brand for ice cream in the UK and it has become part of the company's international

strategy, where it retains its local ice cream brand but shares one logo and most of the product's lineup with the various other Heartbrand brands across the world. Whilst remaining (2006) the market leader in the UK for individual hand-held products such as Cornetto and Magnum, and value-added multi-portion products designed to be eaten at home, such as Viennetta, the Wall's brand faces severe competition from the major supermarket brands and to a lesser extent from

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other me ...

(absorbing the

Rowntree's Rowntree's is a British confectionery brand and former business based in York, England. Rowntree developed the Kit Kat (introduced in 1935), Aero (introduced in 1935), Fruit Pastilles (introduced in 1881), Smarties (introduced in 1937) brands, ...

and

Lyons Maid Lyons Maid is a brand of ice-creams and ice-lollies created in 1925 as a spin-off from the J. Lyons and Co. retail organisation. It is now owned by the Froneri joint venture. Well-known brands produced by Lyons Maid included: Zoom (no longer in ...

brands) and

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

spin-off ice cream products. In 2013, Wall's expanded into the UK confectionery market following a licensing deal with Kinnerton Confectionery, leading to the introduction of ambient chocolate bar variations for the Magnum, Cornetto and Mini Milk ice cream brands. In 2017, Wall's created Magnum Ice Cream Tubs which are sold in shops. The brand launched in Canada in 2022 with a range of Asian-inspired flavours including

bubble tea Bubble tea (also known as pearl milk tea, bubble milk tea, tapioca milk tea, boba tea, or boba; , ) is a tea-based drink that originated in Taiwan in the early 1980s. Taiwanese immigrants brought it to the United States in the 1990s, initially ...

and ube. These flavours are not actually available under the Wall's brand in the UK but are intended to leverage global recognition of the Heartbrand logo; Unilever uses the

Breyers Breyers is a brand of ice cream started in 1866 by William A. Breyer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. History In 1866, William A. Breyer began to produce and sell iced cream in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, first from his home, and later via hor ...

brand for its main range of ice cream products in Canada.

Around the world

The same ice cream as Wall's is sold under different names around the world:

References

External links

*
Thomas Wall Trust
{{Unilever 1922 establishments in England Acton, London Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Ealing Companies based in Gloucester Food manufacturers of the United Kingdom Food processing in London History of the London Borough of Ealing History of Gloucester Ice cream brands Food and drink companies established in 1922 Unilever brands British companies established in 1922 Brand name frozen desserts