# Breyers

Breyers is an ice cream and frozen dessert brand with headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Since 1993, Breyers has been owned and managed by the British conglomerate, Unilever. Founded in 1866, Breyers is the oldest manufacturer of ice cream in the United States.
Breyers makes products described as ice cream or as frozen dairy desserts. Its products range from traditional dairy desserts to those for specialty diet concerns, such as sugar-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan.
Breyers is one of the ten best-selling ice cream brands globally, and was fourth among American brands in 2022 with sales of $498 million.

## History

In 1866, William A. Breyer began to produce and sell ice cream in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The ice cream was hand-cranked and made from cream, sugar, fruit, and nuts. He first sold it to his neighbors from his home, and later via horse and wagon on the streets of Philadelphia as demand for the product grew. By 1882, Breyer had five ice cream shops and a delivery service for the product. He opened a wholesale manufacturing plant in 1896.
Breyer's Ice Cream Company was incorporated in 1908. By 1918, the company produced one million gallons of ice cream annually.
Breyer's Ice Cream Company was sold to the National Dairy Products Corporation/Sealtest in 1926. In 1930, National Dairy Products purchased the company that later become known as Kraft in 1976. Kraft sold its ice cream brands to Unilever in 1993.
In 1993, Unilever merged the Breyers ice cream brand with Gold Bond and Good Humor ice cream to create the Good Humor-Breyers division. Unilever closed its last Breyers plant in Philadelphia in 1995. The Good Humor-Breyers headquarters were moved from Green Bay, Wisconsin and Oakville, Ontario to Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey and Toronto in 2007.
In 2013, Unilever introduced a new category of Breyers products called frozen dairy desserts made with additional ingredients and less butterfat, having created this category to provide smooth, low-calorie products. The main manufacturing change in the new products from Breyers "all-natural" ice cream was a lower fat content, following federal regulations that require ice cream with less than 10% butterfat and milk solids to be labeled as "frozen dairy dessert". However, the new desserts evoked complaints by some consumers who were accustomed to the traditional "all-natural" Breyers ice cream.

### Market

Part of the $8.6 billion Unilever ice cream group, Breyers is among the world's top-10 most valued ice cream brands. With $498 million in sales in 2022, Breyers was fourth among American brands. In 2024, Unilever announced it would sell Breyers and its other ice cream brands by the end of 2025.

## Products

Breyers manufactures its frozen desserts to be either "original ice cream" or "frozen dairy dessert". Some 60% of Breyers products are ice cream and 40% are frozen dairy desserts.
Breyers manufactures products for consumers with specialty diets, such as sugar-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, non-GMO, lactose-free, and "CarbSmart" for people preferring low-carbohydrate desserts.
Breyers groups its products in three flavor categories that include Classics (made with milk, cream, and natural colors and flavors), Better For You desserts (manufactured to be low in calories with lower carbohydrate content and no sugar added for flavor), and Cookies & Candies (which contain pieces of cookies or branded candies).

### Ice cream

Founded in 1866, Breyers is the oldest manufacturer of ice cream in the United States.
Breyers ice cream products are made from milk, cream, sugar, tara gum, and flavors derived from natural sources, such as vanilla.

### Frozen dairy dessert

Breyers frozen dairy desserts are manufactured with skim milk, corn syrup (or maltitol syrup), sugar or a sugar substitute, polydextrose, glycerin, and various other ingredients that may include whey, carob bean gum, guar gum, carrageenan, and added micronutrients.

## Confusion with Dreyer's

In the Western United States, Breyers ice cream may be confused with Dreyer's ice cream, the company cofounded by William Dreyer and Joseph Edy as Edy's Grand Ice Cream in 1928 in Oakland, California. The root of the confusion dates to 1948 when the Edy's Grand Ice Cream name was changed to "Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream". Seeking to eliminate the confusion, Dreyer's changed its brand name in the home market of Breyers from "Dreyer's Grand" back to "Edy's Grand" in 1977, while retaining the Dreyer's brand west of the Rocky Mountains. Around that same time, Breyers had expanded its market into the western United States — the home market of Dreyer's — and by the mid-1980s, was distributing ice cream throughout the region.