Wall's is an

ice cream Ice cream is a frozen dessert typically made from milk or cream that has been flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as Chocolate, cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit, such as strawberries or peaches. Food ...

and frozen dessert brand in the United Kingdom owned by

Unilever Unilever PLC () is a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...

and is part of the Heartbrand global frozen dessert brand. The company was established in 1922 when ice cream production commenced at a factory in Acton,

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

. Wall's remains the market leader in the UK for individual hand-held ice cream products such as Cornetto and Magnum. The brand 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 St James's is a district of Westminster, and a central district in the City of Westminster, London, forming part of the West End of London, West End. The area was once part of the northwestern gardens and parks of St. James's Palace and much of ...

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 or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

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. Odeon Jan 1960

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 Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), and James Darcy Lever (1854–1916). They invested in and su ...

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 do ...

. 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 in West London, England, within the London Borough of Ealing. It is west of Charing Cross. At the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census, its four Wards of the United Kingdom, wards, East Acton, Acton Central, South Acton ...

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

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

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

Sutton, London Sutton is a town in the London Borough of Sutton in South London, England. It is the administrative headquarters of the Outer London borough, on the lower slopes of the North Downs. It is south-southwest of Charing Cross, one of the fourteen ...

, 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. The actor Sir Roger Moore, best known for portraying

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

, famously claimed to have come up with the idea of the Magnum in the 1960s, with the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

stating back then he wished for "Wall's to produce a choc ice on a stick", although Wall's deny any knowledge of this, saying it is no more than "a brilliant story". On 19 March 2024, Unilever announced it would divest its ice cream brands and cut 7,500 jobs in order to make "a simpler, more focused and higher performing Unilever." The divestment is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.

Ice cream

Unilever continues to use the brand for ice cream in the UK and it has become part of the company's international Heartbrand 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 Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 20 ...

(absorbing the Rowntree's 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. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

spin-off ice cream products. Wall's holds a prominent position in the global ice cream market, with two of its brands ranked among the top ten worldwide. Operating under the Heartbrand logo, they produce 40 distinct brands across 52 countries. 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; zh, t=珍珠奶茶, p=zhēnzhū nǎichá, zh, t=波霸奶茶, p=bōbà nǎichá, labels=no) is a tea-based drink most often containing chewy tapio ...

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

Advertising

Since 1970s adverts were used the same for all sister companies including HB Ice Cream in

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

Miko A , or shrine maiden,Groemer, 28. is a young priestess who works at a Shinto shrine. were once likely seen as Shamanism, shamans,Picken, 140. but are understood in modern Japanese culture to be an institutionalized role in daily life, trained ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, Ola in

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and through 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