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HB Ice Cream (originally an initialisation of bothHughes Brothers andHazelbrook Farm) is anice cream brand inIreland and is part of theUnilever Group'sHeartbrand ice cream brand.
It manufactures most of the Heartbrand's ice cream range, as well as some products designed exclusively for the Irish market, including the Hazelbrook Farm range of blocks of ice-cream. Vanilla comes in Blue, Mint Choc in Mint Green, Honeycomb in Honey colour, Banana in Yellow-Brown colour, Strawberry and Rasberry Ripple in Pink, Caramel in Caramel colour and various.[citation needed]
In Northern Ireland, both HB andWall's ice-cream (the UK variant of the Heartbrand) are available, and in recent years[when?] have been promoted together asHB Wall's.
The company was founded in 1926 as Hughes Brothers by James, George, and William Hughes atHazelbrook Farm inChurchtown, Dublin. The name Hazelbrook Farm was dropped duringWorld War II but brought back in the late 1980s except that it was called "HB Originals" from 2002 to 2005. In 1964, the milk distribution operations of HB were transferred toPremier Dairies. The rest of the company was sold toW. R. Grace and Company and subsequently became part ofUnilever in 1973. HB also madesweets andchocolate too at phases. In 2002 and 2003, the company also made frozen yogurt.
In 2003, the HB Ice Cream plant inChurchtown was closed with the loss of 180 jobs.
Hazelbrook House, the Hughes family farmhouse, was moved toBunratty Folk Park in 2001, where it is now on display and open to the public.
In 2016 the brand celebrated its 90th birthday, and all television adverts since 1961 for HB returned to television screens. During the late 1970s and early 1980s popular phrases included "Two Letters Spell Ireland's Favourite Ice Cream", "Still The Favourite" during the mid-1980s while some adverts were used forWall's in England,Miko in France,Ola in Netherlands and other sister brands throughout the world since 1970s. During the mid 1990s there were Cool Bits lolly pop like a sweet.[incomprehensible] On 26 April 2017 many of the adverts from the 1960s and 1970s were made available to theIrish Film Archive and can be watched online.
In 2026 the company will be 100 years old. Together with sister brands such asWall's (theirUK counterpart), they plan to host a display from their company archive to celebrate this centenary.
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