Wells Enterprises announced on May 13, 2026 the nationwide launch of Nutella Ice Cream, described as the only ice cream made with real Nutella, now available in freezers everywhere. The product launches in two formats: a 14 fluid ounce tub (SRP starting at $4.36) and a 3.04 fluid ounce single-serve cone in a 4-pack (SRP starting at $5.47). The tub format features Nutella hazelnut-cocoa layers and swirls throughout a smooth, creamy ice cream base. The cone format delivers the Nutella flavor in a crispy wafer cone format for on-the-go occasions. A Freezer Fridays giveaway promotion runs through May, offering free Nutella Ice Cream to winners who tag a friend on social media. Noah Szporn, Senior Vice President of Nutella at Ferrero North America, and Isabella Chia, Chief Marketing Officer at Wells Enterprises, are the joint spokespersons.
Wells Enterprises is the largest privately held ice cream manufacturer in the United States. Founded in 1913 and headquartered in Le Mars, Iowa (the Ice Cream Capital of the World), Wells produces more than 200 million gallons of ice cream per year across all 50 states. Wells is an independent operating company of the Ferrero Group and manufactures Blue Bunny, Halo Top, Bomb Pop, and Blue Ribbon Classics alongside the new Nutella Ice Cream under the Ferrero licensing relationship.
Ferrero North America operates more than 5,400 employees across 15 plants and warehouses and eight offices in the U.S., Canada, and Caribbean. Its North American brand portfolio includes Nutella, Kinder, Tic Tac, Ferrero Rocher, Butterfinger, CRUNCH, Keebler, Famous Amos, and Mother’s Cookies.
The Ferrero Week: Nutella Ice Cream Follows Nutella Peanut
This is the second major Ferrero North America product announcement in five weeks. On April 24, Ferrero announced the $75 million Nutella Peanut production launch at its Franklin Park, Illinois plant, the first new Nutella flavor in over 60 years. Today, Ferrero and Wells are announcing Nutella’s first-ever frozen dessert format, in both tub and cone applications, at national retail distribution through the largest privately held U.S. ice cream manufacturer.
Two Nutella firsts in five weeks: first new flavor ever, and first frozen format ever. Ferrero is executing the most aggressive Nutella brand extension program in the product’s 62-year history in the spring of 2026. Both launches are deliberate: the Nutella Peanut announcement was made alongside Illinois political figures at the Franklin Park plant, communicating domestic manufacturing investment. The Nutella Ice Cream announcement is issued by Wells Enterprises in Le Mars, Iowa, communicating domestic manufacturing scale. Ferrero is using U.S. manufacturing as the brand permission structure for both extensions simultaneously.
The “Only Ice Cream Made with Real Nutella” Claim
The announcement’s headline claim, “the only ice cream made with real Nutella,” is the most commercially significant product line disclosure in the press release. It positions Nutella Ice Cream not as a Nutella-flavored ice cream but as an ice cream that contains real Nutella as a labeled ingredient. This distinction matters enormously for both the sourcing story and the consumer trust architecture.
A Nutella-flavored ice cream would use a hazelnut and cocoa flavoring compound that approximates Nutella’s flavor profile without requiring actual Nutella as an input. Dozens of artisan and small-batch ice cream producers make hazelnut-cocoa ice cream flavors that consumers colloquially call “Nutella ice cream” without licensing or using the actual product. Wells and Ferrero are doing something different: incorporating real Nutella, the branded hazelnut spread itself, into the ice cream formulation. The Nutella layers and swirls throughout the tub format confirm this: they are Nutella in its spread form, incorporated into the ice cream base as a swirl inclusion rather than homogenized into the base as a flavor.
For Ferrero’s supply chain, this means Nutella’s core ingredient program (hazelnuts primarily from Turkey, cocoa, skim milk, sugar, palm oil, vanilla) is now also a procurement input for Wells’ ice cream production in Le Mars, Iowa. Ferrero is supplying its own finished product as an ingredient to Wells’ manufacturing operation, creating a vertical integration of sorts: Ferrero produces the Nutella at its Nutella manufacturing facilities, then supplies it to Wells as a co-manufacturer for the ice cream application.
The Two Formats: Tub and Cone Ingredient Architecture
The 14 fluid ounce tub is the at-home sharing format. The ice cream base requires a dairy cream and milk solids system at the fat content and total solids specification for a smooth, creamy frozen dessert that carries the Nutella swirl without the two elements blending into a single homogenized texture. The Nutella layers and swirls require real Nutella at a viscosity that allows swirling or layering operations during the ice cream filling process without the Nutella dissolving into the ice cream base. The swirl texture remains perceptible in the finished frozen product, which requires Nutella to maintain a semi-solid, distinct consistency at freezer temperatures (-18°C or 0°F). The natural fat system in Nutella (palm oil as the primary fat) has a higher melting point than most ice cream fats, which supports the texture distinction at freezer temperature.
The single-serve cone is the impulse and on-the-go format. The crispy wafer cone is a separate purchased component, typically sourced from a commercial wafer cone manufacturer at the diameter, height, and thickness specification for a standard single-serve ice cream cone. The Nutella Ice Cream is deposited into the cone and likely finished with a Nutella-flavored coating, dip, or swirl on top to signal the Nutella brand visually at the point of purchase. The 3.04 fluid ounce serving size is standard for a single-serve ice cream cone. The 4-pack format makes the cone appropriate for multipurchase household stocking rather than just impulse convenience store purchase.
Wells Enterprises: 200 Million Gallons Per Year
The scale context behind this launch is the most important number in the press release: Wells Enterprises produces more than 200 million gallons of ice cream per year. That is an enormous production volume. For reference, the U.S. ice cream market produces approximately 1.4 billion gallons annually. Wells alone accounts for roughly 14% of total U.S. ice cream production, concentrated in Le Mars, Iowa. Adding Nutella Ice Cream to that production volume means the Nutella input procurement program at Wells is operating at a scale that most licensed co-manufacturing relationships never reach.
The Halo Top brand in Wells’ portfolio is instructive context. Wells acquired Halo Top in 2019 and has produced it at scale since then. Halo Top’s success as a better-for-you ice cream brand at Wells’ manufacturing volume demonstrates that Wells can take a brand-licensed product and execute it at true national retail distribution scale from Le Mars. Nutella Ice Cream benefits from the same infrastructure. The question is not whether Wells can produce it at scale. The answer is already yes.
The Nostalgia and Category Expansion Context
Nutella was born in 1964 in Alba, Italy. It has been in U.S. households consistently since the 1980s and became a cultural phenomenon in the early 2000s when the Millennial generation discovered it as a toast, crepe, and pastry topping. The brand’s passionate consumer base in the U.S. has spent decades making Nutella ice cream at home by swirling Nutella into vanilla ice cream. A nationally distributed, professionally manufactured version of that home-made combination is the category expansion that Nutella consumers have been anticipating for years.
The Freezer Fridays giveaway through May is a social media trial activation that mirrors the same mechanics as Chipotle’s Honey Chicken delivery promotion, Freddy’s app-early-access Dr Pepper Frost, and Stoner’s $3 off app offer: use a new product launch as a reason to drive social sharing, app engagement, and first-purchase trial simultaneously. The friend-tagging mechanic converts every winner into a referral source for further trial.
Why It Matters for Hazelnut Paste, Dairy Cream, Cocoa, Wafer Cone, and Frozen Dessert Ingredient Suppliers
Wells Enterprises’ Nutella Ice Cream nationwide launch at 200 million gallon per year production scale creates a new sustained procurement program for real Nutella as a swirl inclusion ingredient in a frozen dairy dessert application, requiring Ferrero to supply its finished Nutella spread to Wells’ Le Mars, Iowa, production facility at the viscosity and fat content specification that allows swirling and layering operations in ice cream filling equipment while maintaining a perceptibly distinct Nutella swirl texture at freezer storage temperatures distinct from the surrounding ice cream base. The Nutella-as-ingredient application creates an intra-Ferrero supply relationship that is structurally different from Ferrero’s other brand extension formats: rather than licensing the Nutella flavor to a co-manufacturer for independent formulation, Ferrero is supplying the actual finished Nutella spread to Wells as a production ingredient, maintaining complete control of the Nutella component’s formula while extending its distribution channel into the frozen dessert category.
The ice cream base for both the tub and cone formats requires dairy cream and milk solids at the fat content and total solids specification for a smooth, creamy frozen dessert that performs consistently alongside real Nutella swirl inclusions at Wells’ production volume of more than 200 million gallons per year, adding Nutella Ice Cream to the dairy procurement program already supporting Blue Bunny, Halo Top, Bomb Pop, and Blue Ribbon Classics production at Wells’ Le Mars facility. For dairy cream suppliers and milk solids manufacturers serving Wells Enterprises’ Le Mars production program, the Nutella Ice Cream launch creates an additive dairy procurement event above the baseline volume of Wells’ existing four-brand ice cream portfolio, drawing on the same dairy ingredient supply chain that supports Wells’ 200 million gallon annual production capacity.
The single-serve cone format requires crispy wafer cone inputs at the diameter, height, and structural integrity specification required for a commercially produced ice cream cone that performs at freezer storage temperature without becoming soggy, stale, or losing structural integrity across the product’s frozen shelf life, adding a wafer cone procurement program to Wells’ ingredient supply chain above the baseline tub and bar formats of its existing Blue Bunny and Blue Ribbon Classics product lines. For commercial wafer cone manufacturers serving the U.S. frozen dessert manufacturing segment, a Wells Enterprises Nutella Ice Cream cone 4-pack at national retail distribution represents a significant new wafer cone demand program at the scale of the largest privately held U.S. ice cream manufacturer.
FAQs
What is Nutella Ice Cream? The only ice cream made with real Nutella, featuring Nutella hazelnut-cocoa layers and swirls throughout a smooth, creamy ice cream base. Available in a 14 fluid ounce tub (SRP starting at $4.36) and 3.04 fluid ounce single-serve cones in a 4-pack (SRP starting at $5.47). Available in freezers everywhere as of May 13, 2026.
Who makes it? Manufactured by Wells Enterprises, the largest privately held ice cream manufacturer in the U.S. Founded 1913, headquartered in Le Mars, Iowa. Produces more than 200 million gallons of ice cream per year. An independent operating company of the Ferrero Group.
What is the Freezer Fridays promotion? A limited-time giveaway running through May 2026. Enter by tagging a friend on Nutella’s social media giveaway post.
How does this connect to the Nutella Peanut launch? Both are Ferrero North America brand extensions announced within weeks of each other. Nutella Peanut (the first new Nutella flavor in 62 years) launched from Ferrero’s Franklin Park, Illinois plant. Nutella Ice Cream (the first Nutella frozen dessert) launches from Wells Enterprises in Le Mars, Iowa.
How big is Wells Enterprises? Founded 1913, Le Mars, Iowa. Largest privately held U.S. ice cream manufacturer. More than 200 million gallons per year, distributed across all 50 states. Brands include Blue Bunny, Halo Top, Bomb Pop, and Blue Ribbon Classics. Independent operating company of the Ferrero Group.
About Source86
Wells Enterprises’ Nutella Ice Cream nationwide launch reflects active demand for real Nutella hazelnut-cocoa spread at the viscosity and fat content specification for a swirl and layer inclusion in commercial ice cream production at Wells’ Le Mars manufacturing facility, dairy cream and milk solids at the fat content and total solids specification for a smooth frozen dairy dessert base compatible with Nutella swirl inclusions across Wells’ 200 million gallon annual production volume, commercial wafer cone inputs at the diameter, height, and structural integrity specification for a nationally distributed single-serve frozen dessert cone product, and the frozen dessert co-manufacturing infrastructure at Wells Enterprises’ Le Mars facility that supports Ferrero Group brand extensions alongside Wells’ existing Blue Bunny, Halo Top, Bomb Pop, and Blue Ribbon Classics production programs. At Source86, we connect frozen dessert manufacturers, premium ice cream brands, and licensed CPG co-manufacturers with trusted bulk and wholesale sourcing partners for dairy cream and milk solids, hazelnut paste and cocoa inputs for frozen dessert flavor systems, commercial wafer cone inputs, and the ingredient sourcing infrastructure that supports nationally distributed premium ice cream production at the largest privately held U.S. ice cream manufacturer’s production scale.
Whether your production team sources dairy cream for a premium frozen dessert base, hazelnut flavor systems for a licensed branded ice cream application, or wafer cone inputs for a single-serve frozen dessert format, Source86 is your bridge to the right manufacturing and supply chain partners. Contact Source86 today to start your sourcing search.
