Is Ice-Cream Such A Bad Vertical?
TMICC Grew 4.7%. While both Nestle and Unilever wanted out of ice cream
H1 2026: TMICC organic sales up 4.7%. Nestlé up 3.6%. EBIT margin up 50 basis points. EBITDA margin down 30.
The Magnum Ice Cream Company’s Adjusted EBITDA margin fell 30 basis points in the first half of 2026. Nestlé and General Mills would sign up for that number today.
TMICC spun out of Unilever fourteen months ago as a pure-play ice cream business. Every large diversified peer still holding a piece of this category is stepping back from running it directly. Nestlé has agreed to fold what remains of its own ice cream operations into Froneri, the joint venture it already half owns. General Mills just booked a $1.75 billion impairment and is selling Häagen-Dazs’ China retail shops. Unilever, having already demerged ice cream into TMICC, where it still holds a minority stake, is now separating its Foods division too. That deal runs through McCormick & Company.
That divergence is the actual story here. While the conglomerates that used to own this category treat it as a distraction, the standalone entity is growing faster than most of them. It is also expanding the one margin line that measures real operating discipline.
