Frozen desserts represent a significant but under-utilised growth opportunity in UK foodservice, with operators looking for solutions that can support sales growth, improve consistency and meet evolving consumer demand.
New research commissioned by Flora Professional highlights a clear commercial opportunity for operators, with frozen dessert solutions designed to help improve delivery performance, support operational efficiency and broaden customer reach across takeaway, delivery and in-store occasions.
The research identifies three key opportunity areas for UK operators to grow frozen dessert sales:
- Unlock delivery and takeaway growth by improving product stability, reducing quality issues and protecting profitability.
- Drive stronger operational and commercial returns through improved yield, efficiency and margin potential versus dairy soft serve.
- Serve more customers with one simple solution through a true 1:1 dairy swap that supports wider menu appeal without added back-of-house complexity.
Flora Professional’s frozen dessert solutions are designed to support delivery, margin and customer reach without compromising on taste or performance.
Driving better operational and commercial returns
Beyond delivery, Flora Professional offers operators a strong commercial model versus dairy soft serve.
Flora Professional delivers 9% higher yield versus dairy soft serve, helping operators serve more portions per litre, 35 versus 33, and support profitability.
This can help operators get more from every litre, while supporting stronger margins, reduced waste, greater back-of-house efficiency and improved return on investment.
Flora Professional also offers up to 45% lower CO2 compared with dairy soft serve, helping operators support sustainability goals alongside commercial performance.
Unlocking delivery and takeaway growth
Delivery and takeaway remain a major challenge for frozen desserts, with quality and temperature issues affecting both operator confidence and consumer demand.
The research shows that 90% of operators report quality issues caused by melting and temperature fluctuations, while more than half of operations managers say delivery is affected by quality and temperature issues*.
Consumers are noticing the issue too. Half of consumers avoid ordering frozen desserts for delivery, while 39% cite products “melting too much” as the top issue.
Poor delivery performance can lead to complaints, refunds, replacements and lost repeat orders. However, if quality and temperature risks were reduced, 54% of operators believe sales would rise.
Flora Professional helps operators maintain quality and consistency, supporting stronger delivery performance, fewer customer issues and improved profitability.
Serving more customers with one simple solution
Consumer demand for dairy alternatives is growing, but operators need solutions that are simple to implement and easy to introduce into existing operations.
Flora Professional is designed as a true 1:1 swap for dairy soft serve, allowing operators to serve more customers with one solution rather than managing multiple product lines.
In blind taste testing, consumers did not notice a compromise versus dairy, with 8 out of 10 preferring Flora Professional compared with dairy soft serve. Half of younger consumers would be more likely to order soft serve or milkshakes if a dairy-equivalent taste was available in an option suitable for allergies or intolerances.
Aenika Shah, Head of Foodservice for UK&I at Flora Food Group, said: “Frozen desserts, from soft-serve and shakes to gelato, represent a significant and still under-developed growth category within foodservice.
What we’re seeing is not just a delivery challenge, but a much bigger commercial opportunity. Operators have the potential to unlock new occasions, reach more consumers and drive stronger returns, but they need solutions that truly work operationally.
At Flora Professional, we work closely with operators as partners, combining insight, product and expertise to help them unlock the full potential of the frozen desserts category. Together, we can build menus that deliver on taste, performance and profitability across delivery, takeaway and in-store.”
Flora Professional is encouraging UK operators to explore how its frozen dessert solutions can unlock growth across delivery, takeaway and in-store occasions.
For more information on the Flora Professional range please visit: Welcome to Flora Professional for foodservice professionals
*Research from Censuswide commissioned by Flora Professional of 50 UK operators and 2,000 UK consumers
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