ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 16, 1997 TAG: 9702180007
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MINNEAPOLIS
Mmmmmmmmm - Haagen-Dazs ice cream is now low in fat.
After three years of development, the world's leading maker of superpremium ice cream introduced Haagen-Dazs Low Fat last week at a celebration in Tampa, Fla., one of the country's top 10 ice cream markets.
The slimmed-down versions of vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and coffee fudge are already in Haagen-Dazs shops, and will be in grocery stores nationwide in April.
The new stuff has fewer than three grams of fat per half-cup serving, about 80 percent less than the company's regular ice cream. Low-fat vanilla has 170 calories, compared with 270 for regular vanilla.
Haagen-Dazs, a Minneapolis-based unit of Pillsbury Co., is the first superpremium ice cream maker with national distribution to make a low-fat version, following the lead of local and regional companies.
``We found over one-third of Haagen-Dazs ice cream buyers were also purchasing a competitor's low-fat ice cream,'' said Yvonne La Penotiere, the company's business team leader. ``Those consumers were telling us they weren't terribly satisfied with what they were buying.''
Haagen-Dazs will spend more than $10 million to promote the low-fat ice cream - the most it has ever spent introducing a new product, La Penotiere said.
LENGTH: Short : 36 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Vivian Godfrey, vice-president of Haagen-Dazs,by CNBsamples some of her company's new -low-fat ice cream.