Magnum comes to the U.S.

I spent approximately a week in Europe in each of the years 1989, 1990, 1997, and 1999 and two months there in the summer of 1998.  Not being a very adventurous eater, one of my key survival strategies was to eat ice cream at every opportunity.  In the early years, Good Humor's King Cone (left photo) was my choice.  In the summer of 1998, it was Magnum's white chocolate (right photo).  I was recently amused to see the Wall Street Journal report that so many years later Magnum is finally coming to the U.S. (link):

Unilever PLC is rolling out its popular Magnum ice cream bars in the U.S. for the first time, mounting a fierce challenge to big-name incumbents—Mars Inc.'s Dove bars and Nestlé SA's Haagen Dazs bars.

Magnum bars—premium ice cream on a stick wrapped in a thick chocolate shell—were launched in the U.K. in 1987 and have become the world's top individual frozen dairy snack, accounting for 6.8% of the global market in 2009, according to Euromonitor International.

Despite its popularity across Europe, the indulgent Magnum bars haven't made it to the $9.3 billion U.S. ice cream market. Unilever is about to change that: The first Magnum bars started shipping to big U.S. supermarket chains and convenience stores last week, and the bars will be available across the entire U.S. by mid-April, Unilever said. Magnum bars sold in the U.S. will available for a suggested retail price of $2.59 each, or $3.99 for a multipack of three.