Nestle will merge its US ice cream business with US market leader Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream to become global co-leader in the segment, according to the world's biggest food company.
The new combination will bring together the Dreyer's brand with Nestle's Haagen Dazs and stand level with Anglo-Dutch group Unilever as the world's biggest seller of ice cream by value of sales.
Nestle already has a 23 per cent stake in Dreyer's and will now own two-thirds of a firm that also includes Dreyer's Dreamery, Starbucks and Godiva lines and Nestle's US brands Drumstick, Nestle crunch and Butterfinger.
The swoop extends Swiss-based Nestle's foray into the premium ice cream business after it fully took over the Haagen-Dazs brand in the United States and Canada late last year and bought Schoeller from Germany's Suedzucker.