New Player Hits the Market Via the Taste Buds and a Higher Price By: Tina Arceo-Dumlao IN AN ice cream world dominated by two big players-Nestlé Magnolia and Selecta Walls-it is a formidable challenge for new ice cream players to get a significant piece of the market.   The Food People Inc., the firm behind Fruits in Ice Cream, decided to take a different tack and penetrate the market by hitting them where it matters most - their taste buds. Jose Ma. M. Celdran, one of the founders of TFPI, says they are going into product sampling in the outlets which carry their premium ice cream line to educate the public on what their ice cream tastes like. "Instead of going into advertising, we decided to go into product sampling because we believe it will be the product itself that will push our products in the market. We want the market to know that there is such an ice cream for people with discriminating tastes. It is ice cream for ice cream aficionados," Celdran says. He explains that it is pointless to go head-to-head against Magnolia and Selecta as these companies already have the distribution network in place and their products are different from Fruits in Ice Cream. "I believe we can coexist because we are addressing a different market, a niche market which is composed of people who know what real ice cream tastes like. We are a small company and we can't compete in their market. We are going for a unique market," Celdran says. Rosalinda M. Custodio, who handles the research and development for TFPI, says Fruits in Ice Cream uses only carefully selected dairy and tropical fruit ingredients. They also use 100 percent milk-derived fat instead of the cheaper vegetable fat and oils that are commonly used by ice cream manufacturers. The use of pure milk fat and natural milk ingredients gives Fruits in Ice Cream a richer texture and flavor. It is comparable with Haagen Dazs, which is considered the king of ice creams and the premium line of the market leaders. Fruits in Ice Cream data show that its ice cream line has as much as 24 percent milk solids compared to a maximum of only 18 percent for most known local brands. Its fruit content is also higher at between 18 percent and 25 percent compared to a maximum of 20 percent for local brands and even US brands. A half-gallon of Fruits in Ice Cream costs an average of P190 compared with the competitor's cost only about P130 for the same flavor. Celdran, however, says even first-time tasters can already tell the difference between their ice cream and those which use vegetable fat or oils.

"What we say is that our cream is made the way ice cream should be and not the way we have become accustomed to," Celdran says. Fruits in Ice Cream's caliber is already tested abroad as its products have been exported to difficult markets such as Japan for the past three years. It prides itself in being the only Philippine ice cream legitimately exported and accepted by the Ministry of Health in Japan. Celdran says there are even reports that their ice cream was served during the G-8 summit in Okinawa by its Japanese distributor. Kobo Co. Ltd., which distributes Fruits in Ice Cream in Japan, has been selling Philippine ice cream in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. Celdran says exports to the US East Coast started last year while shipments to Hawaii started early this year. Fruits in Ice Cream will soon be sold in the West Coast under a toll manufacturing arrangement in that area. It was only after making it in the foreign markets that it decided to heed requests of family and friends to also serve the ice cream in the local market. Celdran says they initially tapped their friends to become the main distributors of the ice cream in the local market as they would know how to keep the ice cream stored in ideal conditions to preserve the quality of its products. They steadily expanded the retail outlets to include some supermarket chains although he says that the main distribution is still through houses in plush subdivisions. This is, he says, another different marketing strategy adopted by TFPI to get into the market. "We are not competing on the distribution or in the brand but on the product especially the fruited ones. We believe there is a demand out there for really good ice cream," Celdran says. Custodio says incorporating fruits into ice cream is a time honored Filipino tradition dating back to the early 1900s. She says it is this technology that enabled fruit flavored ice creams produced in the right way to be rated big winners in the US and in Japan. "The good thing about it is that we can do what foreign ice cream makers can do but they can't produce the same ice cream as ours," Custodio says. Ube is the biggest seller among Fruits In Ice Cream flavors followed by mango, halo-halo and macapuno. Other flavors are also available such as cappuccino, green tea, chocolate, vanilla, dulce leche and strawberry. Vanilla decadence and choco hazel crumble are also available on a limited edition. "When we started we said we will make our ice cream in the best way we can. We want to produce something of value, a really good product and we believe that if people will get to taste our product they will know what we mean," Celdran says. Celdran says the group believes that it is ultimately the taste or the actual experience of eating its ice cream that will attract buyers into the fold. < more Reviews >