Magnum is a Belgian brand of ice cream bars owned by the British-Dutch company Unilever, originally developed and produced by Frisko in the Danish city Aarhus. It is sold as part of the Heartbrand line of products in most countries. In Greece, the Magnum brand name is owned by Nestlé since 2005-2006 following the acquisition of Delta Ice Cream, so the Unilever ice cream uses the name Magic.
History
The ice cream today known as Magnum was developed in Aarhus, Denmark, in the late 80's and by Mogens Vigh-Larsen, the then-Technical Director of Frisko, which was back then an ice cream factory. It was put into production in fall 1988 and originally manufactured by Frisko in Denmark. The original Magnum. The former factory in Aarhus, Denmark, was converted into apartments, shops and a fitness centre named "Friskohus" after the ice cream company brand. The Frisko brand is still used in Denmark. The company also started selling Magnum ice cream cones in 1994 and an ice cream sandwich in 2002.'''
Varieties
Starting in 1992, the company added Magnum Almond, Double Chocolate, and White amongst other flavours. In 2002, Magnum branched into frozen yogurt with their raspberry fruit swirl covered in milk chocolate. Moments were introduced which were bite-size ice cream treats with caramel, chocolate, or hazelnut centres, followed later in the year by "mini", "crunchy", and "light". Late 2002 saw the launch of Magnum Intense, a chocolate truffle center enveloped in ice cream and covered with chocolate, and the limited edition7 Deadly Sins series of ice creams, whose flavours were named after the seven deadly sins. Sins was followed by another limited edition range in 2005 in which each flavour was named after one of the senses: Magnum Aroma, Magnum Touch, Magnum Sound, Magnum Taste, and Magnum Sight. In 2003, Streets, the brand under which Magnum is sold in Australia and New Zealand, brought out a limited edition series of ice creams known as The Sixties Nine featuring sixties-related names: John Lemon, Wood Choc, Jami Hendrix, ChocWork Orange, Peace ManGO, Cinnaman on the Moon, Cherry Guevara, Candy Warhol and Guava Lamp. Consumers who collected nine of these ice cream sticks could send them off to gain a free Magnum T-shirt. The extreme popularity of the ChocWork Orange resulted in Streets selling it as the "Chocolate Orange" Magnum for some time after the remainder of the range was discontinued. Similarly, the Peppermint Envy of the Seven Deadly Sins range became "Peppermint" and is still available in Australia today. In 2008, Magnum brought out new variants in the UK—Mayan Mystica, a chocolate ice cream Magnum blended with cinnamon, nutmeg and honey flavours; and Magnum Minis available in a variety of flavours. Eva Longoria was the face of Magnum in 2008. Also in 2008, Josh Holloway, from television's Lost, was selected as the first male spokesperson of Magnum in Turkey. Benicio del Toro and Caroline Correa starred in a television commercial for Magnum Gold, directed by Bryan Singer. In 2009, Magnum Mini Moments were launched. They came in three types of chocolate: milk, white and dark all with 5 different flavours including almond, truffle etc. In China, the Magnum name is retained; however, there are fewer varieties—as of 2009 there are only vanilla, cappuccino, and crunchy. Mint and double chocolate were introduced in 2006/7 but were pulled from the market in 2008. In 2011, Magnum ice cream was launched in the US and Canada with six varieties: Double Caramel, Double Chocolate, Classic, Almond, White, and Dark. In April 2013, Magnum ice cream was launched in India by Hindustan Unilever, starting with Chennai, and February the following year, expanded to national distribution. It is distributed under the brand name Kwality Wall's. In 2014, The Philippines opened a "make-your-own" or "do-it-yourself" Magnum dessert bar/cafe called Magnum Manila, located at SM Aura's Sky Park, Taguig. In 2018, Magnum launched its first vegan ice creams in two flavours, Magnum Vegan Classic and Magnum Vegan Almond. The new product was first released in Finland and Sweden followed by the UK.
