Cult Ice-Cream Brand Messina Hits Supermarket Shelves
The small-batch artisan gelato maker has expanded production to put some of its best-selling flavours into tubs and ice-cream cakes for Woolworths.
Gelato Messina has collaborated on Tim Tams, Schweppes soft drinks and even scented sunscreen. But the arrival of its gelato tubs on Woolworths freezer shelves this week is a company first.
“We’ve never directly transplanted our core range before,” says Messina co-owner Donato Toce. Some of the brand’s most popular flavours – Super Vanilla, Tiramisu, Hazelnut Praline and Robert Brownie Jr. – will make the trek to supermarkets around the country, along with Pistachio Praline and Dulce de Leche, which have overtaken salted caramel as Messina’s best-selling flavours.
It has been a steep learning curve for a small-batch artisan food manufacturer to become a supermarket brand. Messina has previously dipped a toe in the market with specially created ice-cream bars.
To be price competitive at the supermarket, the gelato has to be made in greater volume. “We don’t have the equipment to do those numbers, so someone else is making it for us using our recipe,” Toce says.
But Messina’s in-house team produces all the additions that make the individual flavours sing. So other than price (you’ll pay slightly less for the gelato in Woolworths than you would in a Messina store), is there a difference between the two products?
“I don’t think the consumer will notice,” says Toce. “It’s just because the machinery is different, so there’s a slightly different amount of air (in it).”
Messina will simultaneously roll out another new supermarket range this week. The Messina creative team was inspired by the ice-cream cakes they devoured as children, “even if we weren’t patient enough to let them thaw”.
The fruits of that research resulted in Bavarian cakes flavoured with tiramisu, raspberry and choc malt (RRP $30). Messina is banking on consumers searching out quality – producing the range in Sydney using top-shelf ingredients made it difficult to keep costs down.
“We’ve never gone looking (to branch into the supermarket trade),” says Toce. “We’ve been approached, and we’re always up for giving something a go.”
While he says the supermarket sector is currently “just a blip” in Messina revenues, they are optimistic about the latest push. “Let’s see how it goes,” Toce adds.
