Magnum is a Belgian brand of ice cream and the company’s namesake, originally developed and produced by Frisko in the Danish city Aarhus. It is sold as part of the Heartbrand line of products, a division of Unilever in most countries and is available in sticks, tubs and bites. In Greece, the Magnum brand name has been owned by Nestlé since 2005-2006 following the acquisition of Delta Ice Cream, so the Unilever ice cream uses the name Magic.
The ice cream today known as Magnum was developed in Aarhus, Denmark, in the late 1980s by Mogens Vigh-Larsen (1935-2019), then technical director of Frisko, which was an ice cream maker. It was put into production in autumn 1988 and originally manufactured by Frisko in Denmark. The original Magnum (later rebranded as Magnum Classic) consisted of a thick bar of vanilla ice cream on a stick, with a chocolate coating. As there was no real chocolate which could stand the temperature of −40 degrees Celsius, an ad hoc chocolate had to be developed. The original Magnum had a weight of 86 grams and a volume of 120 ml.The Aarhus factory was converted into apartments, shops and a fitness centre named “Friskohus” (The Frisko House) after the ice cream company brand.The Frisko brand is still used in Denmark.
The company also started selling Magnum ice cream cones in 1994 and an ice cream sandwich in 2002.
