Magnum ice cream sales slide ‘reignites’ fears over weight-loss drugs

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Shares in the Magnum Ice Cream Company sank on Thursday after the Unilever spin-off reported a slide in sales volumes, exacerbating concerns that the category is vulnerable to growing use of weight-loss drugs.

The maker of Cornetto and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream reported a 3 per cent drop in sales volumes in the fourth quarter – well below the 0.5 per cent volume growth forecast by analysts.

Jefferies analyst David Hayes said the result would “reignite worries” on the structural risks of GLP-1 drugs for the ice cream category: “This miss will not help that anxiety, we think.”

Magnum shares sank more than 14 per cent in Amsterdam after the company reported its first earnings since its demerger in December, when it listed with a valuation of €7.8 billion on Euronext Amsterdam. The company’s market value was cut to €8.6 billion following Thursday’s sell-off.

Ahead of its spin-off, Magnum faced scrutiny from investors on how exposed a pure-play ice cream company would be to the growing use of weight-loss drugs.

Chief executive Peter ter Kulve played down the risk, pointing to low-calorie and high-protein options in the portfolio, as well as portion-control versions of brands, such as Magnum Bonbons.

Magnum reported a 48 per cent drop in annual net profit to €307 million due to separation and restructuring costs from the demerger. Operating profit fell 21 per cent to €599 million.

The company reported €7.9 billion turnover in 2025, flat compared with the previous year, with organic sales up 4.2 per cent, from 2.8 per cent in 2024. It expected organic sales growth of between 3 and 5 per cent this year.

Unilever chose to demerge the division, which accounted for 16 per cent of overall sales, as part of a turnaround plan designed to boost growth and simplify its sprawling portfolio that spans cleaning products, condiments, make-up and packaged food.

Shares in the FTSE 100 company fell 1.4 per cent in London on Thursday after forecasting underlying sales growth for 2026 to be at the bottom end of its 4 and 6 per cent range, with at least 2 per cent volume growth.

Bernstein analyst Callum Elliott said Unilever management had consistently referred to achieving 5 per cent growth in the medium term following the ice cream spin-off.

“This acceleration now seems to be pushed back beyond [2026], with a promise of jam tomorrow,” he said.

Chief executive Fernando Fernandez touted a “simpler, sharper and faster” Unilever following the ice cream demerger.

He said on a media call that food was still an “attractive business” but that he was concentrating resources on faster growing divisions.

Annual underlying sales growth was up 3.5 per cent, in line with expectations, driven by the beauty and wellbeing and personal care divisions, which grew by 4.3 and 4.7 per cent respectively. The food division grew 2.5 per cent.

Turnover fell 3.8 per cent to €50.5 billion while operating profit rose 2.4 per cent to €9 billion. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026