Breyers

Infobox Brand
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name=Breyers


type=
currentowner=Unilever
origin=flagcountry|USA
discontinued=
related=
markets=United States
previousowners=
trademarkregistrations=
website=http://www.breyers.com/

Breyers Ice Cream is a brand of ice cream owned by Unilever (part of their United States Good Humor-Breyers unit). They have a large plant in the town of Framingham, Massachusetts, outside Boston.

Breyers is sometimesFact|date=June 2008 confused with Dreyer's ("Edy's" in the Eastern United States), a Nestle brand, which has led to a popularFact|date=June 2008 misconception that it is an imitation or knock-off brand, or vice-versa.

History

Breyers Ice Cream informally began as a company in 1866 when William A. Breyer of Philadelphia made his first gallon of hand-cranked ice cream consisting of cream, pure cane sugar, fresh fruits, nuts and other natural flavors. Breyer opened his first retail ice cream shop in 1882.

In 1896, 30 years after Breyer made his first gallon of ice cream, his family set up its first wholesale manufacturing plant. William Breyer’s son Henry W. Breyer, Sr. incorporated the business in 1908. He added the (now obsolete) "Pledge of Purity" to every package of Breyers Ice Cream as his personal guarantee that Breyers was to use the highest quality, all natural ingredients available. Currently, the pledge is carefully worded to only include the ice-cream portions of the product, so as to exclude the frequently non-natural ingredients in the mix-ins.

In 1924, a new facility was built in West Philadelphia, on 43rd St. between Woodland Ave. and the Media line railroad tracks. [ [http://www.philageohistory.org/rdic-images/LUM1942/LUM1942.3A-3.htm 1942 Land use map shows Breyer's plant] ] This plant employed 500 workers and could produce 70,000 gallons of ice cream per day. [ [http://workshopoftheworld.com/southwest_phila/breyers.html "Workshop of the World" profile of Breyer's] ] This facility has since been demolished and in its place, the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia has built a campus expansion.

Breyers Yogurt

Breyers Yogurt is a brand of yogurt, owned previously by Kraft Foods then by CoolBrands International, a Canadian company, and it has been recently sold by them to Lily Acquisition LLC, an affiliate of Catterton Partners, a private equity firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut. This is manufactured under a Unilever license.

Breyers has recently introduced the Breyers Smart! line of yogurt which includes DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid linked to brain development, learning, and cognition. [http://www.breyersyogurt.com/products/smart/smart.asp www.breyersyogurt.com] Breyers Smart!]

CarbSmart

Breyers features a line of low-carb ice cream products called CarbSmart. CarbSmart ice cream has 4 grams of net carbs per 1/2 cup serving.

Recipe changes

Unilever (the multi-national corporation that owns the "Breyers", Good Humor, and Ben & Jerry's brand names) recently started adding tara gum (made from the endo-sperm of the tara tree) and whey to the "All Natural" varieties of Breyers ice cream. [ [http://www.breyers.com/products/product.cfm?b=1&u=77567-25434 breyers.com] Ingredients in Breyers all-natural strawberry ice cream]

hrinking product size

As with many products, unit quantity has decreased [ [http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/4220.html How to Avoid a Price Increase — HBS Working Knowledge ] ] . In 2001, Breyers half-gallon "brick" box was replaced by a 1.75 quart tub. In April 2008, the 1.75 quart tub was replaced by an even smaller 1.5 quart container. [ [http://consumerist.com/382041/breyers-ice-cream-shrinks-to-15-quarts Shrinking Products: Breyers Ice Cream Shrinks To 1.5 Quarts ] ] [ [http://panopticonreview.blogspot.com/2008/04/ice-cream-and-soap.html The Panopticon Review: Ice Cream and Soap ] ]

External links

* [http://www.breyers.com/ Breyers.com] Official web site
* [http://adailyscoop.com/2006/09/11/breyers-natural-ice-cream-and-tara-gum-unilevers-response/ adailyscoop.com] Breyers Natural Ice Cream and Tara Gum: Unilever’s Response

References