Serial entrepreneur Dan Lowe is launching a market-first ice cream brand called SMUGGLERS, having sold Fourpure back in 2019. SMUGGLERS has secured a non-exclusive listing with Waitrose from March this year and is aimed at families who won’t compromise on taste and texture but also want some goodness in their ice cream. Mr Lowe, and his co-founders, shopper marketing specialist Toby Moore and technology entrepreneur James Sewell, are all hands-on dads who recognise that getting veg into their kids can be a struggle.
“Family mealtimes can sometimes be a little stressful in our house, especially when it comes to getting the children to eat their vegetables,” Mr Lowe commented. “We know that first and foremost ice cream has to taste great for kids to enjoy it, but we’ve smuggled just enough veg into SMUGGLERS so that you can’t see or taste it at all, but it also adds a little bit of goodness. And because we’ve added in the veg it helps to reduce fat, have fewer calories and lower sugar versus a leading equivalent pot ice cream brand. SMUGGLERS also has a whole bunch of vitamins in it – so now you can get full on flavour with added goodness in every scoop.”
The brand is initially launching with two great tasting flavours: Chocolate with hidden beetroot and Vanilla with hidden parsnip, with more in development.
SMUGGLERS is made using high quality ingredients and natural flavourings to ensure it delivers on both taste and texture. Priced at £5/460ml pot, the aim is to present a genuine alternative for families versus other mainstream pot ice creams while also bringing new shoppers into the category.
“SMUGGLERS is looking to establish the ‘added goodness’ segment in the ice cream category, helping to take a little of the guilt away from serving ice cream and fulfilling a real need for parents across the nation,” Mr Lowe continued. “Given its proposition, our aim is to make SMUGGLERS available to families at every touchpoint, including grocery, impulse, leisure, travel and education channels.”
The SMUGGLERS team has undertaken extensive taste testing and quantitative research. “Our testing revealed that there is huge latent demand for the SMUGGLERS proposition, with over 40% of households with children across all social demographic groups expressing an interest in buying it,” Mr Moore said. “SMUGGLERS tastes fantastic and being competitively priced the sales volumes could be enormous. SMUGGLERS is the innovation the category has been crying out for – it genuinely could be the holy grail of ice cream.”
Smugglers launches in Waitrose on 5th March and will be supported with a comprehensive marketing campaign across PR, digital and influencer activations. To find out more visit www.smugglersfood.com.
